When you have seen the errors in which you live, you will understand the good that we have done you by coming to your land by order of his Majesty the King of Spain. Our Lord permitted that your pride should be brought low and that no Indian should be able to offend a Christian.

Put another way, the chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans.

Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home.

Rhino-mounted Bantu shock troops could have overthrown the Roman Empire. It never happened.

In much of the rest of the world, rich people live in gated communities and drink bottled water. That's increasingly the case in Los Angeles where I come from. So that wealthy people in much of the world are insulated from the consequences of their actions.

History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves

With the MacArthur grant, I realized that people have high expectations of me, that they were placing me in this group of achievers. I compared what Id actually achieved in my life with what I would like to achieve and what other people have achieved, and I found that comparison depressing.