Human Origins Quotes

“I couldn't help thinking how well Cain had prospered after killing his brother: he founded the first city--and, although we don't like to talk about it all that much, we are all his children.”
― Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

“We might feel very sure that there is no more to reality that the material world in which we live, but we cannot prove that this is the case. Theoretically there could be other realms, other dimensions, as all religious traditions and quantum physics alike maintain. Theoretically, the brain could be as much a receiver as a generator of consciousness and thus might be fine-tuned in altered states to pick up wavelengths that are normally not accessible to us.”
― Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

“Darwin caused controversy, not merely because his ideas contradicted Genesis, but because they fell foul of the way in which Genesis had been read by those influenced by the Enlightenment, for it was the Enlightenment that conceived of the human as almost exclusively rational and intellectual, and set the human at a distance from the animal.”
― Andrew Louth, Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology

“Most human characteristics that are genuinely universal are easily accounted for in evolutionary terms, and the arguments are widely known. For example, we all live in families and societies because to do so aids our survival and the propagation of our genes. We all have the capacity for love because it is an emotion that promotes family and social life. We all have laws of one kind or another because these, too, reinforce family and social ties and thus make us stronger and more competitive. We all eat food and drink water because we will soon die if we don't. We all use the unique human gift of language to preserve knowledge handed down from previous generations, and to create culture - thus further sharpening our competitive edge.”
― Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

“...at root, what unites us are our unproven irrational beliefs of one kind or another of non-material dimensions of reality, inhabited by incorporeal beings that interact with us and frame our destiny in mysterious ways”
― Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

“...at root, what unites us are our unproven irrational beliefs of one kind or another in non-material dimensions of reality, inhabited by incorporeal beings that interact with us and frame our destiny in mysterious ways.”
― Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

“On the left side of the balcony, at the rear just outside the open doorway through which I'm looking, I suddenly become aware of the presence of a figure. It is an imposing statue, about six feet high and apparently carved in one piece from some green stone - perhaps jade. The sculptor provided excellent detailing of fine robes, and a belt, and something - possibly a sword? - suspended from the belt.
At first this stunning piece of sculpture seems just that - a harmless, inanimate statue. I'm curious to see more of it and move my point of view a little closer to get to look at its face. To my surprise, the statue is half animal, half human. It has the body of a powerful and well-muscled man but the head of a crocodile, like Sobek, the ancient Egyptian crocodile god. And now I suddenly realise it is alive - a living being, a supernatural guardian. At this moment its eyes swivel sideways and it is looking at me, taking note of me.
The look is intelligent, appraising somehow sly, but yet not threatening. What is this living statue, this being of jade? The vision fades...”
― Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

“It takes courage to throw off unproductive methods and approaches that the majority of scholars in your field have unquestioningly yoked themselves to for decades.”
― Graham Hancock, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

“Are we living in the moment or are we living for the moment?”
― Gregg Braden, The Science of Self-Empowerment: Awakening the New Human Story