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"To investigate the history of man's development, the most important finds are, of course, hominid fossils."
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"They were obviously headstones of graves, though the graves themselves no longer existed as either mounds or depressions; the years had leveled all. Scattered here and there, more massive blocks showed where some pompous or ambitious monument had once flung its feeble defiance at oblivion."
"There was something melancholic about that symbol of their nation's promise of freedom, a bell with a chipped mouth and cleft body."
"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."
"Those who stand for different causes during different generations often experience the same oppositions and the same difficulties as those of the previous and the next generations. That is the basis of history repeating itself."
Explore more quotes by Richard Leakey
"The land is not in the least bit fertile and yet the cattle herds grow larger and larger. A cow represents capital investment here."
"We are concerned that, in a few years time, this place of discovery, with its wealth of human fossils, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world, could be completely destroyed."
"One should not forget that there are very few surviving items from this period, often just single, small bones, a tooth, a sliver of the skull. Categorizing these pieces can be very difficult."
"Along the borders to Ethiopia and Somalia, anarchy reigns, the police and military have retreated quite some distance."
"For fossils to thrive, certain favorable circumstances are required. First of all, of course, remnants of life have to be there. These then need to be washed over with water as soon as possible, so that the bones are covered with a layer of sediment."
"Primates need good nutrition, to begin with. Not only fruits and plants, but insects as well."
"It is virtually impossible to control Northern Kenya, which is populated chiefly by migrant nomads."
"We think that groups of between 30 and 40 early men would have settled in an area measuring a hundred square kilometers."
"Paleoanthropology is not a science that ends with the discovery of a bone. One has to have the original to work with. It is a life-long task."
"Whether or not all this came to pass in an East African ditch, I wouldn't like to say. Perhaps it happened in North Africa or further west, but Africa was definitely the place."
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