Homo Sapiens Quotes - Page 3

• There are definitely recurring themes in humanity's relationship with our environment. The biggest is probably adaptation, because humans are incredibly good at adapting to new environments in relatively short periods of time. The ancestors of Homo sapiens started leaving Africa over one million years ago, moving from warm, tropical climates into the freezing wilderness of Europe and the desert ecosystems of the Middle East.

  Annalee Newitz

  Moving, Years, Europe

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The right question to ask from a Darwinian prospective is what was it about bipedalism that was so advantageous? Why did it lead to a - why did that adaptation ultimately lead to a species Homo sapiens that has come to dominate the planet today with six and a half billion people?

  Donald Johanson

  People, Half, Today

  "Anthropologist Donald Johanson On 'Lucy's Legacy'". "Science Friday" with Ira Flatow, www.npr.org. March 6, 2009.

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• We want to be special. We want our place in the cosmos to be central. We want evolution-even godless evolution-to have been directed toward us so that we stand at the pinnacle of nature's ladder of progress. Rewind the tape of life and we want to believe that we (Homo Sapiens) would appear again and again. Would we? Probably not.

  Michael Shermer

  Believe, Special, Progress

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• That is the onslaught. It has been going on a long time, I argue, but in the 20th century humans have certainly perfected it, extending domination to every single corner of the earth and our Homo sapiens population to more than 6 billion - until no place is untouched by despoliation.

  Kirkpatrick Sale

  Long, Population, Earth

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Homo sapiens are the only mammals who intentionally hold Beard Of Bees competitions.

  Dana Gould

  Competition, Mammals, Beard

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• We are misery-making machines! Homo sapiens has perfected the art of causing suffering. Pain is humankind's collective GDP.

  Henry Rollins

  Art, Pain, Gdp

  "Pain and Gain" by Henry Rollins, www.laweekly.com. March 6, 2014.

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• If you think about it, every single species is endangered. Homo sapiens at the front of the line, mosquitoes and lawyers at the back.

  Henry Rollins

  Thinking, Mosquitoes, Lines

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• I firmly believe that contemporary spiritual use of entheogenic drugs is one of humankind's brightest hopes for overcoming the ecological crisis from which we threaten the biosphere and jeopardize our own survival, for Homo sapiens is close to the head of the list of endangered species.

  Jonathan Ott

  Spiritual, Believe, Drug

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• So, it seems, everything is in place. For the first time since homo sapiens began to doodle on cave walls, there is an argument, an opportunity and a means to make serious steps towards a world government.

  Gideon Rachman

  Wall, Mean, Opportunity

  "Financial Times Editorial Admits Agenda For Dictatorial World Government" by Paul Joseph Watson, www.infowars.com. December 9, 2008.

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• The number of people in the world engaged in this search for catastrophic impactors totals one or two dozen. How long into the future are you willing to protect Homo sapiens on Earth? Before you answer that question, take a detour to Arizona's Meteor Crater during your next vacation.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Vacation, Two, Numbers

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• I contend that the continued racial classification of Homo sapiens represents an outmoded approach to the general problem of differentiation within a species. In other words, I reject a racial classification of humans for the same reasons that I prefer not to divide into subspecies the prodigiously variable West Indian land snails that form the subject of my own research.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Land, Differentiation, Research

  "Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Why We Should Not Name Human Races - A Biological View", p. 231, 1977.

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• It struck me as I listened to those two men that a truer nomination (name) for our species than Homo sapiens might be Homo narrans, the storytelling person. What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats–and they in turn can listen to ours.

  Henning Mankell

  Dream, Animal, Men

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• It is of man's essence to create materially and morally, to fabricate things and to fabricate himself. Homo faber is the definition I propose ... Homo faber, Homo sapiens, I pay my respects to both, for they tend to merge.

  Henri Bergson

  Men, Essence, Definitions

  Henri Bergson (2012). “The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics”, p.67, Courier Corporation

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• Spoken language clearly differentiates Homo sapiens from all other creatures. None but humankind produces a complex spoken language, a medium for communication and a medium for introspective reflection.

  Richard Leakey

  Communication, Reflection, Language

  Richard Leakey (2008). “The Origin Of Humankind”, p.125, Hachette UK

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• Natural selection operates according to immediate cirumstances and not toward a long-term goal. Homo sapiens did eventually evolve as a descendant of the first humans, but there was nothing inevitable about it.

  Richard Leakey

  Long, Goal, Firsts

  "The Origin of Humankind". Book by Richard Leakey, 1994.

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• The language of art is powerful to those who understand it, and puzzling to those who do not. What we do know is that here was the modern human mind at work, spinning symbolism and abstraction in a way that only Homo sapiens is capable of doing.

  Richard Leakey

  Art, Powerful, Symbolism

  Richard Leakey (2008). “The Origin Of Humankind”, p.124, Hachette UK

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• For better or worse, man is the tool-using animal, and as such he has become the lord of creation. When he is lord also of himself, he will deserve his self-chosen title homo sapiens.

  William Ralph Inge

  Animal, Men, Self

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• The paradox of the human condition is expressed more in education than elsewhere in human culture, because learning to learn has been and continues to be Homo Sapiens' most formidable evolutionary task... It must also be clear that we will never quite learn how to learn, for since Homo Sapiens is self-changing, and since the more culture changes the faster it changes, man's methods and rate of learning will never quite keep pace with his need to learn.

  Jules Henry

  Men, Self, Experience

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• Every culture from the Egyptians to the Mayans to the American Indians to the Bedouins created bestiaries that enabled them to express their relationship with nature. Ashes and Snow is a 21st-century bestiary filled with species from around the world. Nature’s orchestra includes not just Homo sapiens but elephants, whales, manatees, eagles, cheetahs, orangutans, and many others.

  Gregory Colbert

  Elephants, Eagles, Whales

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• Human beings are not inevitable, and our brief existence is not preordained to be extended into the distant future. If Homo sapiens is to have a continued presence on earth, humankind will reevaluate its sense of place in the world and modify its strong species-centric stewardship of the planet. Our collective concepts of morality and ethics have a direct impact on our species' ultimate fate.

  Jeff Schweitzer

  Atheist, Strong, Fate

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• We're all homos. Homo sapiens.

  Michael Scott

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• I think we're going to move from a Homo sapiens into a Homo evolutis: ... a hominid that takes direct and deliberate control over the evolution of his species, her species and other species.

  Juan Enriquez

  Motivation, Moving, Inspiration

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• Surely one zoo in the world should have the courage to draw the ultimate conclusion about our ancestry? A cage with Homo Sapiens in all its varying forms, perhaps then we would understand ourselves better. The question of course is whether the other animals would approve of it.

  Cees Nooteboom

  Zoos, Animal, Should Have

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• It must be stressed that there is nothing insulting about looking at people as animals. We are animals, after all. Homo sapiens is a species of primate, a biological phenomenon dominated by biological rules, like any other species. Human nature is no more than one particular kind of animal nature. Agreed, the human species is an extraordinary animal; but all other species are also extraordinary animals, each in their own way, and the scientific man-watcher can bring many fresh insights to the study of human affairs if he can retain this basic attitude of evolutionary humility.

  Desmond Morris

  Attitude, Humility, Men

  Desmond Morris (1977). “Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior”

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• We who revel in nature's diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Nature, Animal, Diversity

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