Quote

There were plenty of other hominids, but they disappeared, probably because humans exterminated them, but nobody knows for sure.

I kept an open mind on the question of whether a hominid had been present in Europe in the early Pleistocene.

Certainly the first true humans were unique by virtue of their large brains. It was because the human brain is so large when compared with that of a chimpanzee that paleontologists for years hunted for a half-ape, half-human skeleton that would provide a fossil link between the human and the ape.

From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens. From the same material he has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals.

We are placed in the genus of Homo, which is Latin for man - Homo sapiens: supposedly wise men. I sometimes think - wonder - whether we really are wise men.

Humans have continued to evolve quite a lot over the past ten thousand years, and certainly over 100 thousand. Sure, our biology affects our behavior. But it's unlikely that humans' early evolution is deeply relevant to contemporary psychological questions about dating or the willpower to complete a dissertation.

In the last two or three decades, there's been a feminization of the man in popular media that I've never really understood.

We are the first generation of human beings to have substantial insights into the origin of our cosmos and of human life in it.

In our home we grew up thinking we were Mormons first and human beings second.

But the truth is that Homo sapiens is a sensual species. I think all species are, to one degree or another.