Joshua T Mathews

“As long as Homo erectus did not undergo further genetic alterations, its stone tools remained roughly the same – for close to 2 million years!”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“It’s hard to admit you want something in this world. Seems like we’re all just waiting for our dreams to be crushed.”
― Gretchen McNeil, Dig Two Graves

“and only in the last 100,000 years – with the rise of Homo sapiens – that man jumped to the top of the food chain. That spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences. Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years. This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc. As lions became deadlier, so gazelles evolved to run faster, hyenas to cooperate better, and rhinoceroses to be more bad-tempered. In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“The Bible decrees that ‘If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife’ (Deuteronomy 22:28–9).”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind