Home > Work > The New Penguin History of The World

The New Penguin History of The World QUOTES

The New Penguin History of The World QUOTES

1 " Ever since 1945 the federal government has held and indeed increased its importance as the first customer of the American economy. Government spending had been the primary economic stimulant and to increase it had been the goal of hundreds of interest groups; hopes of balanced budgets and cheap, business-like administration always ran aground upon this fact. What was more, the United States was a democracy; whatever the doctrinaire objections to it, and however much rhetoric might be devoted to attacking it, a welfare state slowly advanced because voters wanted it that way. These facts gradually made the old ideal of totally free enterprise, unchecked and uninvaded by the influence of government, unreal. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

2 " For a quarter-century British governments had tried and failed to combine economic growth, increased social service provision and a high level of employment. The second depended ultimately on the first, but when difficulty arose, the first had always been sacrificed to the other two. The United Kingdom was, after all, a democracy whose votes, greedy and gullible, had to be placated. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

3 " If there was a spectre haunting France in the 1780's, it was not that of revolution but that of state bankruptcy. The whole social and political structure of France stood in the way of tapping the wealth of the better-off, the only sure way of emerging from the financial impasse. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

4 " Outsiders became keen to join an organization [European Community] that offered attractive bribes to the poor. Greece did so in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986.” - written before 2003. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

5 " Europeans showed in 1900 much the same confidence in the continuing success of their culture as the Chinese elite had shown in theirs a century earlier. The past, they were sure, proved them right. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

6 " Civilization is the name we give to the interaction of human beings in a very creative way, when, as it were, a critical mass of cultural potential and a certain surplus of resources have been built up. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

7 " More people than ever before look to government as their best chance of securing well-being rather than as their inevitable enemy. Politics as a contest to capture state power has at times apparently replaced religion (sometimes even appearing to eclipse market economics) as the focus of faith that can move mountains. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

8 " The Sumerian language lived on for centuries in temples and scribal schools, much as Latin lived on for the learned in the muddle of vernacular cultures in Europe after the collapse of the western classical world of Rome. The comparison is suggestive, because literary and linguistic tradition embodies ideas and images which impose, permit and limit different ways of seeing the world; they have, that is to say, historic weight. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

9 " Homo Sapiens "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

10 " It is important none the less that our remotest identifiable ancestors lived in trees because what survived in the next phase of evolution were genetic strains best suited to the special uncertainties and accidental challenges of the forest. That environment put a premium on the capacity to learn. Those survived whose genetic inheritance could respond and adapt to the surprising, sudden danger of deep shade, confused visual patterns and treacherous handholds. Strains prone to accident in such conditions were wiped out. Among those that prospered (genetically speaking) were some species with long digits which were to develop into fingers and, eventually, the oppositional thumb, and other forerunners of the apes already embarked upon an evolution towards three-dimensional vision and the diminution of the importance of the sense of smell. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

11 " his genetic inheritance not only enables Homo sapiens to make conscious change, to undertake an unprecedented kind of evolution, but also controls and limits him. The irrationalities of the twentieth century show the narrow limits of our capacity for conscious control of our destiny. To this extent, we are still determined, still unfree, still a part of a nature which produced our unique qualities in the first place only by evolutionary selection. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

12 " Los reyes egipcios no surgieron, a diferencia de los de Sumer, como los «grandes hombres» de la comunidad de una ciudad-estado que originariamente delegara en ellos la capacidad de obrar en su nombre. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

13 " had been put there by the masons of the Queen of Sheba. Today, remembering the world of other Iron Age peoples in Europe and the civilizations "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

14 " history is the story of mankind, of what it has done, suffered or enjoyed. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

15 " El proceso decisivo es la evolución de seres con apariencia humana como una rama diferenciada entre los primates, pues es en esta bifurcación de la línea, por decirlo así, donde comenzamos a estar atentos para encontrar la estación en la que descendemos para abordar la historia. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

16 " Lo que queda de esta primera época son objetos fabricados y utilizados por los pueblos que vivieron en los bordes de las zonas de inundación o en las escasas áreas rocosas del interior del valle o de sus flancos. Antes del 4000 a.C., estos habitantes empezaron a sentir el impacto de un importante cambio climático; se acumuló la arena procedente de los desiertos y se produjo la desecación. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

17 " a los carnívoros del incesante mordisqueo propio de tantos seres vegetarianos, por lo que permitía economizar esfuerzos. Es uno de los primeros indicios de que la capacidad de limitación consciente está presente cuando se transportan a casa osos para compartirlos mañana en lugar de consumirlos hoy in situ. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

18 " El faraón también tenía que llevar aún dos coronas y se le enterraba dos veces, una en el Alto Egipto y otra en el Bajo; esta división era todavía real. Las relaciones con sus vecinos no fueron destacables, aunque se organizaron una serie de expediciones contra los pueblos de Palestina hacia el final del Imperio Antiguo. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

19 " Este hecho podría estar relacionado con la aparición de nuevas posibilidades a medida que el aumento de los excedentes disponibles permitía el trueque, lo cual condujo finalmente al comercio. "

― , The New Penguin History of The World

20 " La cultura y la tradición están sustituyendo lentamente a la mutación genética y la selección natural como fuentes primarias del cambio entre los homínidos "

― , The New Penguin History of The World