Shamseerkeloth

“I am thus optimistic that historical studies of human societies can be pursued as scientifically as studies of dinosaurs—and with profit to our own society today, by teaching us what shaped the modern world, and what might shape our future.”
― Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel

“Part of the solution to that problem was for one person, the chief, to exercise a monopoly on the right to use force.”
― Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel

“We thereby know that states arose around 3700 B.C. in Mesopotamia and around 300 B.C. in Mesoamerica, over 2,000 years ago in the Andes, China, and Southeast Asia, and over 1,000 years ago in West Africa.”
― Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel

“It was as if I’d found myself in a performance of some extravagant, complex drama, and I didn’t have a script.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram