History as well as life itself is complicated -- neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.

- Jared Diamond

A blueprint for disaster in any society is when the elite are capable of insulating themselves.

- Jared Diamond

Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home.

- Jared Diamond

One person making a wrong decision affects the whole country.

- Jared Diamond

History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences am…

- Jared Diamond

In much of the rest of the world, rich people live in gated communities and drink bottled water. That's increasingly the case in Los Angeles where I …

- Jared Diamond

I personally am not conscious of my accent.

- Jared Diamond

Forced to choose between limiting population or trying to increase food production, we chose the latter and ended up with starvation, warfare, and ty…

- Jared Diamond

Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial in tipping the outcomes [of the various societies' histories] towards success or failure: long-t…

- Jared Diamond