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History, as well as life itself, is complicated; neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.

— Jared Diamond Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

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More quotes by Jared Diamond

My hope in writing this book has been that enough people will choose to profit from that opportunity to make a difference.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

Our sex is ultimately laid down by our genes.

Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1997)

Behavior evolves through natural selection, just as anatomy does. Hence if sex is enjoyable, natural selection must have been responsible for that outcome.

Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1997)

Remember that impact is the product of two factors: population multiplied times impact per person.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

Put another way, the chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans.

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (1991)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jared Diamond (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.