I, too, am convinced that our ancestors came from Africa.
Richard LeakeyRead
We are concerned that, in a few years time, this place of discovery, with its wealth of human fossils, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world, could be completely destroyed.
Interpretation
The quote expresses concern about the preservation of a unique archaeological site rich in human fossils.
Richard Leakey highlights the importance of preserving sites rich in human history and fossils, warning that neglect or destruction could lead to the loss of invaluable discoveries. The quote reflects a broader concern for environmental conservation and the safeguarding of our heritage for future generations.
In practice
Use this quote during a speech at a conservation fundraiser.
I, too, am convinced that our ancestors came from Africa.
For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty.
To have arrived on this earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony.
Earlier, 100,000 elephants lived in Kenya and we didn't have any noteworthy problem with it. The problem that we have is not that there are now more elephants.
Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come . . . . Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate.
If we could look through the skull into the brain of a consciously thinking person, and if the place of optimal excitability were luminous, then we should see playing over the cerebral surface, a bright spot with fantastic, waving borders constantly fluctuating in size and form, surrounded by a darkness more or less deep, covering the rest of the hemisphere.
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but human activity. They are like those who, having been diagnosed with diabetes, eat donuts for breakfast. There's not much to do about them.
Human exploration is something that's been going on for thousands of years, and the models that worked 500 years ago are likely to work again today.
Remember that [scientific thought] is the guide of action; that the truth which it arrives at is not that which we can ideally contemplate without error, but that which we may act upon without fear; and you cannot fail to see that scientific thought is not an accompaniment or condition of human progress, but human progress itself.
I believe that science is the engine of prosperity, that if you look around at the wealth of civilization today, it's the wealth that comes from science.
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