“The first fallacy of Communism is its attempt to over-simplify history. Marx and Engels attempted to change history from a fluid stream, fed by human activities from millions of tributaries, into a fixed, undeviating, pre-determined course of progress which could be charted in the past and predicted for the future on the basis of a single, simple criterion - economics. Obviously economics have played a vital and powerful role in human history but so have climate, topography, access to oceans and inland waterways, mechanical inventions, scientific discoveries, national and racial affinities, filial affection, religion, desire for explanatory adventure, sentiments of loyalty, patriotism and a multitude of other factors.”

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)

Source: The Red Pyramid

De historie kan niets voorspellen, behalve één ding: dat geen groote wending in de menschelijke verhoudingen ooit uitkomt in den vorm, waarin vroeger levenden zich haar hebben kunnen verbeeld.
Source: In the Shadow of Tomorrow (1936), Ch. 20.

Source: The Red Queen (1993), Ch. 1. Human Nature

Source: Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974), p. 168

Source: The Price of Salt

Jürg Niehans, " Revolution and evolution in economic theory https://ecompapers.biz.uwa.edu.au/paper/PDF%20of%20Discussion%20Papers/1992/92-20%20Niehans,%20J.pdf." The Australian Quarterly (1993): 498-515.

Source: 1860s, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863), Ch.2, p. 72
Context: In a well worn metaphor, a parallel is drawn between the life of man and the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly; but the comparison may be more just as well as more novel, if for its former term we take the mental progress of the race. History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another, itself but temporary. Truly the imago state of Man seems to be terribly distant, but every moult is a step gained, and of such there have been many.

Source: Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (2021), Welcome to the Anthropocene, p. 8