Jared Diamond Quotes

There is no law of history any more than of a kaleidoscope.

All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.

History can tell us what happened in the past. But it cannot assert that it must happen again in the future.

Sometimes the lights all shining on me, other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long strange trip it's been.

According to Marx, socialism is the first stage of communism and it covers a very long historical period in which we must practise the principle "to each according to his work" and combine the interests of the state, the collective and the individual, for only thus can we arouse people's enthusiasm for labour and develop socialist production.

It's amazing the way one can take a step ten and a half miles long and still always land in a cowpat.

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

I'd be lying if I said I went into any project with any premeditated ideas of what's gonna happen or what's gonna be perceived as a result of it. I just kinda work on autopilot and then, when it's done, it's done and I have more of an internal sense of when that is. And then I leave it up to the audience to decide if one's better than the other.

I mean you last as long as lies.

It's a long story. Want a refill?" "No, let's start the steak. Where's the button?" "Right here." "Well, push it." "Me? You offered to cook." "Ben Caxton, I will lie here and starve before I will get up to push a button six inches from your finger" "As you wish." He pressed the button. "But don't forget who cooked dinner.

Any scientist who tells you they know that GMOs are safe and not to worry about it, is either ignorant of the history of science or is deliberately lying. Nobody knows what the long-term effect will be.

The long days seduce all thought away, and we lie like the lizards in the sun, postponing our lives indefinitely.

Long, flat expanses of professionalism bother me. I'd rather have a band that could explode at any time.

The enemy say that Americans are good at a long shot, but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon you instantly to give a lie to this slander. Charge!

I tell everyone a different story. That way nothing's ever boring, even when they turn and say goodbye.

All that you are seeking is also seeking you. If you lie still, sit still, it will find you. It has been waiting for you a long time.

That is life. Just one long succession of misunderstandings and rash acts and what not. Absolutely.

Anybody who claims that they know where this whole thing is all going is just lying.

But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.

A mirror does not develop because an historical pageant passes in front of it. It only develops when it gets a fresh coat of quicksilver in other words, when it acquires new sensitiveness; and the novel's success lies in its own sensitiveness, not in the success of its subject matter.

Things rarely happen for a single reason. Even the cleverest and most skilled manipulators recognize that their real art lies in making use of that which they cannot predict.

History abhors determinism but cannot tolerate chance.

It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

Contrary to his infallibly "honest" image, Abe wasn't above lying so long as it served a noble purpose.

Sow the seeds of life — humbleness, pure-heartedness, love; and in the long eternity which lies before the soul, every minutest grain will come up again with an increase of thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold.