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Human History Quotes

Browse 452 quotes about Human History.

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Human History Quotes

“Here I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It's a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intelligences greater than our own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity - a place where extrapolation breaks down and new models must be applied - and the world will pass beyond our understanding.”

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Book:The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
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“It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history , the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together in to a single family.”

IfsWayHumansEndsSelfMomentsTogetherSpiritGrowsRaceAttitudeClearDangerousBecomingDestructionSalvationWesternAncientIndianHuman RaceHinduismChaptersHuman HistorySelf Destruction
Author:Arnold J. Toynbee
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“The creation story unfurling within the scientific enterprise provides the fundamental context, the fundamental arena of meaning, for all the peoples of the Earth. For the first time in human history, we can agree on the basic story of the galaxies, the stars, the planets, minerals, life forms, and human cultures. This story does not diminish the spiritual traditions of the classical or tribal periods of human history. Rather, the story provides the proper setting for the teachings of all traditions, showing the true magnitude of their central truths.”

FirstsHumansDoeStoriesEarthSpiritualFormCultureStarsTeachingCreationPlanetsPeriodsFirst TimeTraditionAgreeFundamentalsSettingSettingsEnterpriseDiminishGalaxyArenaHuman HistoryMagnitudeMineralsCreation Stories
Author:Brian Swimme
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“The Second World War is the largest single event in human history, fought across six of the world's seven continents and all it oceans. It killed 50 million human beings, left hundreds of millions of others wounded in mind or body and materially devastated much of the heartland of civilization.”

WorldMindHumansHeartWarBodyLeftHuman BeingsMillionsEventsCivilizationOceanSixSevenWar Of The WorldsWorld War IContinentsWoundedHuman HistorySecond World WarDevastated
Author:John Keegan
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“True religion is a universal and (necessarily) ego-transcending psycho-physical motivation of human beings. However, up to the present stage in human history, only relatively few individuals in any generation have been willing and able to make the gesture that is true religion (or, otherwise, true esotericism). In their great numbers, most people have, up to now, never yet been ready or willing to adapt to the true (and progressive) practical, moral, devotional, Spiritual, and Transcendental Wisdom-culture of right life.”

PeopleHumansHas BeensAbleSpiritualMotivationCultureIndividualHuman BeingsNumbersMoralGenerationsStageWillingReadyEgoUniversalPracticalsProgressiveGesturesHuman HistoryTranscendentalPsychoDevotionalTrue ReligionTranscending
Author:Adi Da
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“Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.”

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Author:Ray Kurzweil
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“The apologists for space science always seem over-impressed by engineering trivia and make far too much of non-stick frying pans and perfect ball-bearings. To my mind, the outstanding spin-off from space research is not new technology. The real bonus has been that for the first time in human history we have had a chance to look at the Earth from space, and the information gained from seeing from the outside our azure-green planet in all its global beauty has given rise to a whole new set of questions and answers.”

MindFirstsHumansLooksHas BeensRealWholeSeemsEarthGivenChanceSpaceAnswersPerfectTechnologyToo MuchSeeingInformationPlanetsResearchFirst TimeBallsGreenSticksEngineeringImpressedHuman HistoryOutstandingNew TechnologyBonusQuestions And AnswersFryingTriviaAzureFrying PansSpace Science
Author:James Lovelock
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“The steep ride up the and down the energy curve is the most abnormal thing that has ever happened in human history. Most of human history is a no-growth situation. Our culture is built on growth and that phase of human history is almost over and we are not prepared for it. Our biggest problem is not the end of our resources. That will be gradual. Our biggest problem is a cultural problem. We don't know how to cope with it.”

KnowsHumansEndsProblemCultureEnergyGrowthSituationKnow HowHappenedResourcesBuiltPreparedPhasesCurvesHuman HistoryAbnormalSteepAlmost Over
Author:M. King Hubbert
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“Then, when the Fed's fire hoses started spraying an elephant soup of liquidity injections in every direction, and its balance sheet grew by $1.3 trillion in just thirteen weeks compared to $850 billion during its first ninety-four years, I became convinced that the Fed was flying by the seat of its pants, making it up as it went along. It was evident that its aim was to stop the hissy fit on Wall Streetm and that the thread of a Great Depression 2.0 was just a cover story for a panicked spree of money printing that exceeded any other episode in recorded human history.”

YearsFirstsHumansStoriesFireFourWeekStreetsWallGrewBalanceFitAimConvincedBillionsFlyingSeatsFedsFour YearsPantsEpisodesThreadEvidentSheetsSoupElephantsNinetyHuman HistoryPrintingThirteenGreat DepressionInjectionLiquidityBalance SheetsHissy Fits
Author:David Stockman
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“If Mother Culture were to give an account of human history using these terms, it would go something like this: ' The Leavers were chapter one of human history -- a long and uneventful chapter. Their chapter of human history ended about ten thousand years ago with the birth of agriculture in the Near East. This event marked the beginning of chapter two, the chapter of the Takers. It's true there are still Leavers living in the world, but these are anachronisms, fossils -- people living in the past, people who just don't realize that their chapter of human history is over. '”

PeopleIfsWorldGivingYearsHumansLongStillsTwoPastMotherCultureTermRealizingEventsBirthThousandTenYears AgoAccountsEastChaptersAgricultureThousand YearsFossilsHuman HistoryLiving In The PastAnachronismLeavers
Book:Ishmael: A Novel
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“. . . the example given by the Nazi regime as to the ability of a modern state to destroy human lives with the same techniques used by modern industry, employing the bureaucratic apparatus readily available to any modern state, is one that can hardly be ignored. Because although history may not repeat itself, it is rare that anything introduced to human history is not used again. Whether the Holocaust was unique or not in terms of its precedents is one question; whether it will remain so is quite another.”

HumansMayStatesUsedGivenTermAbilityModernExampleIndustryUniqueAvailableTechniqueHuman LifeRepeatsHolocaustRegimesNaziIgnoredHuman HistoryPrecedentEmploying
Author:Omer Bartov
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“Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history.”

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Author:Charles Krauthammer
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“For most of human history, we could only watch, like bystanders, the beautiful dance of Nature. But today, we are on the cusp of an epoch-making transition, from being passive observers of Nature to being active choreographers of Nature. The Age of Discovery in science is coming to a close, opening up an Age of Mastery.”

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Book:Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century
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“America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more-and nothing less. The rest-everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything 'noble and just,' and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history-was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle.”

HumansAmericaIndividualPrinciplesRightsAchievementConsequenceIdealsNobleNovelistsUsaLogicalHeroicFoundingHuman HistoryFidelityUnprecedentedIndividual Rights
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“You think OWS is radical? You think 350.org was radical for helping organize mass civil disobedience in D.C. in August against the Keystone Pipeline? We're not radical. Radicals work for oil companies. The CEO of Exxon gets up every morning and goes to work changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. No one has ever done anything as radical as that, not in all of human history.”

ThinkingHumansDoneHelpingChangeWorkCompanyMorningMassEnvironmentalOilGet UpRadicalAtmosphereChemicalsPollutionEvery MorningCompositionOrganizeCeoHuman HistoryDisobedienceAugustCivil DisobedienceEnvironmentalistPipelineOil CompaniesKeystonesKeystone Pipeline
Author:Bill McKibben
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“If Darwinism is true, then there is no purpose or meaning to life, there is no morality, there's no qualitative difference between humans and animals, there's no life after death, and there's no purpose to human history. Now, are you trying to tell me that it doesn't really matter if people believe we evolved or not?”

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Author:Greg Koukl
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“But if I'm it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I'm going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield.”

IfsWayHumansKindMayStillsWarEndsStoriesRunningLastsFacesHumanityHellPagesStandingWoodsAbandonedHuntersHighwaysHuman HistoryBattlefieldsFaceless5th Wave
Book:The 5th Wave
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“As far as many statistical series that are related to activities of mankind are concerned, the date that divides human history into two equal parts is well within living memory. The world of today is as different from the world I was born in as that world was from Julius Caesar s. I was born in the middle of human history, to date, roughly. Almost as much has happened since I was born as happened before.”

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Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“Many people are shrinking from the future and from participation in the movement toward a new, expanded reality. And, like homesick travelers abroad, they are focusing their anxieties on home. The reasons are not far to seek. We are at a turning point in human history. . . . We could turn our attention to the problems that going to the Moon certainly will not solve ... But I think this would be fatal to our future. . . . A society that no longer moves forward does not merely stagnate; it begins to die.”

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Author:Margaret Mead
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“To fail to properly contextualize content has historically been the basis for the slaughter of millions of people in every century throughout human history. To ignore context is the greatest source of catastrophe for every generation of man, and it continutes on in the present time with the same catastrophic consequences. There is no greater lesson that needs to be learned to reduce human suffering and bring ignorance to an end.”

PeopleMenNeedsHumansEndsTruthSufferingMillionsGreaterFailingGenerationsCenturyIgnoranceSourceLessonsConsequenceBasesCatastropheHuman HistorySlaughterPresent TimeHuman Suffering
Author:David Hawkins
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“Whether I am meant to or not, I challenge assumptions about women. I do make some people uncomfortable, which I'm well aware of, but that's just part of coming to grips with what I believe is still one of the most important pieces of unfinished business in human history - empowering women to be able to stand up for themselves.”

PeopleBelieveHumansWellsStillsImportantAblePoliticsI BelieveChallengesPiecesUncomfortableAssumptionEmpoweringHuman HistoryEmpowering WomenUnfinishedUnfinished Business
Author:Hillary Clinton
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