Create Yours

Top 300 Jared Diamond Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 7 of 7

Jared Diamond Quote: “Human populations of only a few hundred people were unable to survive indefinitely in complete isolation. A population of 4,000 was able to survive for 10,000 years, but with significant cultural losses and significant failures to invent, leaving it with a uniquely simplified material culture.”

301. “Human populations of only a few hundred people were unable to survive indefinitely in complete isolation. A population of 4,000 was able to survive for 10,000 years, but with significant cultural losses and significant failures to invent, leaving it with a uniquely simplified material culture.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Inventors often have to persist at their tinkering for a long time in the absence of public demand, because early models perform too poorly to be useful.”

302. “Inventors often have to persist at their tinkering for a long time in the absence of public demand, because early models perform too poorly to be useful.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Something big and bad suddenly happening motivates us more than do slowly developing problems, and also more than the prospect of something big and bad happening in the future. I’m reminded of Samuel Johnson’s saying: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

303. “Something big and bad suddenly happening motivates us more than do slowly developing problems, and also more than the prospect of something big and bad happening in the future. I’m reminded of Samuel Johnson’s saying: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Allende had good ideas, but he executed them poorly. Although he correctly recognized Chile’s problems, he adopted wrong solutions to those problems.”

304. “Allende had good ideas, but he executed them poorly. Although he correctly recognized Chile’s problems, he adopted wrong solutions to those problems.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest.”

305. “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “From all that experience, Icelanders took away the conclusion: This is not a country in which we can enjoy the luxury of experimenting. We live in a fragile land; we know that our ways will allow at least some of us to survive; don’t ask us to change.”

306. “From all that experience, Icelanders took away the conclusion: This is not a country in which we can enjoy the luxury of experimenting. We live in a fragile land; we know that our ways will allow at least some of us to survive; don’t ask us to change.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “The near-simultaneous disappearance of so many large species raises an obvious question: what caused it? An obvious possible answer is that they were killed off or else eliminated indirectly by the first arriving humans. Recall.”

307. “The near-simultaneous disappearance of so many large species raises an obvious question: what caused it? An obvious possible answer is that they were killed off or else eliminated indirectly by the first arriving humans. Recall.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “That is, the adoption of food production exemplifies what is termed an autocatalytic process – one that catalyzes itself in a positive feedback cycle, going faster and faster once it has started.”

308. “That is, the adoption of food production exemplifies what is termed an autocatalytic process – one that catalyzes itself in a positive feedback cycle, going faster and faster once it has started.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Different peoples acquired food production at different times in prehistory.”

309. “Different peoples acquired food production at different times in prehistory.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Today, 28% of the Dominican Republic is still forested, but only 1% of Haiti.”

310. “Today, 28% of the Dominican Republic is still forested, but only 1% of Haiti.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “We calculate that our urgings of the coauthors of those com- pleted volumes cost us on the average, per volume, two friendships for life and several more friendships for at least a decade.”

311. “We calculate that our urgings of the coauthors of those com- pleted volumes cost us on the average, per volume, two friendships for life and several more friendships for at least a decade.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “The population that I already mentioned as having the world’s lowest recorded salt intake, Brazil’s Yanomamo Indians, also had the world’s lowest average blood pressure, an astonishingly low 96 over 61.”

312. “The population that I already mentioned as having the world’s lowest recorded salt intake, Brazil’s Yanomamo Indians, also had the world’s lowest average blood pressure, an astonishingly low 96 over 61.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Crops starting out as weeds included rye and oats, turnips and radishes, beets and leeks, and lettuce.”

313. “Crops starting out as weeds included rye and oats, turnips and radishes, beets and leeks, and lettuce.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Toen de bewoners van Paaseiland in de problemen kwamen, konden ze nergens heen, was er niemand bij wie ze hulp konden zoeken – en wij moderne aardbewoners zullen evenmin elders ons heil kunnen zoeken als onze problemen groter worden. Dat zijn de redenen waarom mensen de ondergang van Paaseiland zien als een metafoor, een doemscenario voor wat ons in onze eigen toekomst misschien te wachten staat.”

314. “Toen de bewoners van Paaseiland in de problemen kwamen, konden ze nergens heen, was er niemand bij wie ze hulp konden zoeken – en wij moderne aardbewoners zullen evenmin elders ons heil kunnen zoeken als onze problemen groter worden. Dat zijn de redenen waarom mensen de ondergang van Paaseiland zien als een metafoor, een doemscenario voor wat ons in onze eigen toekomst misschien te wachten staat.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “A mere dozen species account for over 80 percent of the modern world’s annual tonnage of all crops. Those dozen blockbusters are the cereals wheat, corn, rice, barley, and sorghum; the pulse soybean; the roots or tubers potato, manioc, and sweet potato; the sugar sources sugarcane and sugar beet; and the fruit banana.”

315. “A mere dozen species account for over 80 percent of the modern world’s annual tonnage of all crops. Those dozen blockbusters are the cereals wheat, corn, rice, barley, and sorghum; the pulse soybean; the roots or tubers potato, manioc, and sweet potato; the sugar sources sugarcane and sugar beet; and the fruit banana.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Those historical inequalities have cast long shadows on the modern world, because the literate societies with metal tools have conquered or exterminated the other societies.”

316. “Those historical inequalities have cast long shadows on the modern world, because the literate societies with metal tools have conquered or exterminated the other societies.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “One can’t merely content oneself with identifying proximate causes; one also has to ask about ultimate causes.”

317. “One can’t merely content oneself with identifying proximate causes; one also has to ask about ultimate causes.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “It does mean that it’s going to require more conscious effort on the part of American political leaders and American voters to halt our gridlock than in other countries.”

318. “It does mean that it’s going to require more conscious effort on the part of American political leaders and American voters to halt our gridlock than in other countries.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Thus, Taiwan Strait may have served as the training ground where mainland Chinese developed the open-water maritime skills that would permit them to expand over the Pacific.”

319. “Thus, Taiwan Strait may have served as the training ground where mainland Chinese developed the open-water maritime skills that would permit them to expand over the Pacific.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “The first cameras, typewriters, and television sets were as awful as Otto’s seven-foot-tall gas engine. That makes it difficult for an inventor to foresee whether his or her awful prototype might eventually find a use and thus warrant more time and expense to develop it.”

320. “The first cameras, typewriters, and television sets were as awful as Otto’s seven-foot-tall gas engine. That makes it difficult for an inventor to foresee whether his or her awful prototype might eventually find a use and thus warrant more time and expense to develop it.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Part of the solution to that problem was for one person, the chief, to exercise a monopoly on the right to use force.”

321. “Part of the solution to that problem was for one person, the chief, to exercise a monopoly on the right to use force.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “The histories of the Fertile Crescent and China also hold a salutary lesson for the modern world: circumstances change, and past primacy is no guarantee of future primacy. One might even wonder whether the geographical reasoning employed throughout this book has at last become wholly irrelevant in the modern world, now that ideas diffuse everywhere instantly on the Internet and cargo is routinely airfreighted overnight between continents.”

322. “The histories of the Fertile Crescent and China also hold a salutary lesson for the modern world: circumstances change, and past primacy is no guarantee of future primacy. One might even wonder whether the geographical reasoning employed throughout this book has at last become wholly irrelevant in the modern world, now that ideas diffuse everywhere instantly on the Internet and cargo is routinely airfreighted overnight between continents.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “That envoy saw the Spaniards at their most disorganized, told Atahuallpa that they were not fighting men, and that he could tie them all up if given 200 Indians.”

323. “That envoy saw the Spaniards at their most disorganized, told Atahuallpa that they were not fighting men, and that he could tie them all up if given 200 Indians.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “Two contrasting explanations suggest themselves: problems with the local people, or problems with the locally available wild plants.”

324. “Two contrasting explanations suggest themselves: problems with the local people, or problems with the locally available wild plants.”

— Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quote: “The UCLA historian Christopher Ehret has applied this linguistic approach to determining the sequence in which domestic plants and animals became utilized by the people of each African language family. By a method termed glotto-chronology, based on calculations of how rapidly words tend to change over historical time, comparative linguistics can even yield estimated dates for domestications or crop arrivals.”

325. “The UCLA historian Christopher Ehret has applied this linguistic approach to determining the sequence in which domestic plants and animals became utilized by the people of each African language family. By a method termed glotto-chronology, based on calculations of how rapidly words tend to change over historical time, comparative linguistics can even yield estimated dates for domestications or crop arrivals.”

— Jared Diamond

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NEXT

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 300 Jared Diamond Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.