158 quotes
Scientists believe that we will soon have bionic arms that will... be able to transmit signals back to the brain... enabling... the sense of touch.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.., [~]10 million African slaves were imported to America. ...[~]70 per cent... worked on the sugar plantations.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Many Americans... maintain... a moral imperative to bring the Third World countries... benefits of democracy and human rights, even if... by cruise missiles and F-16s.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Obesity is a double victory... [E]ating little... will lead to economic contraction... [E]at too much and... buy diet products - contributing to economic growth twice over.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The Scientific Revolution... has been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery... was... that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
For decades aluminium was much more expensive than gold. ...Napoleon III... commissioned aluminium cutlery... for... distinguished guests. Less important visitors had to make do with the gold...
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
For thousands of years after the Agricultural Revolution... liturgy consisted mainly of... sacrificing lambs, wine and cakes to divine powers... [for] promised abundant harvest and fecund flocks.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The agricultural revolution is one of the most controversial events in history. Some... proclaim... it set humankind on the road to prosperity and progress. Others... that it has led to perdition.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Most past cultures have... fallen prey to the armies of some ruthless empire, which... consigned them to oblivion. Empires... ultimately fall, but... tend to leave behind rich.., enduring legacies.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
In 1847, British train companies put their heads together and agreed that henceforth all train timetables would be calibrated to Greenwich Observatory time. rather than the local times of Liverpool. Manchester and Glasgow.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
It's common today to explain anything and everything as the result of climate change, but the truth is that earth's climate never rests. It is in constant flux. Every event in history occurred against the background of some climate change. In particular, our planet has experienced numerous cycles of cooling and warming.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
In the Middle Ages, sugar was a rare luxury in Europe. It was imported from the Middle East at prohibitive prices and used sparingly...
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Money is more open-minded than language, state law, cultural codes, religious beliefs and social habits. Money... can bridge almost any cultural gap, and does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age or sexual orientation.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Ancient scribes learned not merely to read and write, but also to use catalogues, dictionaries, calendars, forms and tables. They studied the internalised technique of cataloguing, retrieving and processing information very different from those used by the brain.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Biologists have... debunked Nazi racial theory. ...[G]enetic research... has demonstrated that... differences between... human lineages are far smaller...
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The European imperial expeditions transformed... history... from... isolated peoples and cultures... [to] the history of a single integrated human society.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Mere observations... are not knowledge. ...[T]o understand the universe, we need ...theories. Earlier traditions usually formulated... theories... [as] stories. Modern science uses mathematics.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Don't believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)