Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997)

2 Sourced Quotes

View all Jared Diamond Quotes

All this is not to deny that Watt, Edison, the Wright brothers, Morse, and Whitney made big improvements and thereby increased or inaugurated commercial success. The form of the invention eventually adopted might have been somewhat different without the recognized inventor's contribution. But the question for our purpose is whether the broad pattern of world history would have been altered significantly if some genius inventor had not been born at a particular place and time. The answer is clear: there has never been such a person. All recognized famous inventors had capable predecessors and successors and made their improvements at a time when society was capable of using their product.

Jared Diamond

In the latter case it is often government that organizes the conquest, and religion that justifies it.

Jared Diamond