Quotes from book
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is a 2005 book by academic and popular science author Jared Diamond, in which the author first defines collapse: "a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time." He then reviews the causes of historical and pre-historical instances of societal collapse—particularly those involving significant influences from environmental changes, the effects of climate change, hostile neighbors, trade partners, and the society's response to the foregoing four challenges—and considers the success or failure different societies have had in coping with such threats.


Jared Diamond photo

“[.. ] the values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.”

Cited by Tim Flannery, "Learning from the past to change our future" http://science.sciencemag.org/content/307/5706/45.full, Science, volume 307, 7 January 2005, page 45.
Source: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo

“My hope in writing this book has been that enough people will choose to profit from that opportunity to make a difference.”

Source: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005), Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 525, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo

“Those numbers ay not sound like a bid deal until one reflects that average global temperatures were "only" 5 degrees cooler at the height of the last Ice Age.”

About global warming. Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "The most serious problems" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 493, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

Jared Diamond photo

“Remember that impact is the product of two factors: population multiplied times impact per person.”

Source: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005), Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 524, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond photo

Similar authors

Jared Diamond photo
Jared Diamond 33
American scientist and author 1937
Herbert A. Simon photo
Herbert A. Simon 58
American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and p…
H.P. Lovecraft photo
H.P. Lovecraft 203
American author
Napoleon Hill photo
Napoleon Hill 104
American author
Martin Lewis Perl photo
Martin Lewis Perl 9
American scientist
Jerome Isaac Friedman photo
Jerome Isaac Friedman 6
American physicist
Stephen King photo
Stephen King 733
American author
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki 151
American finance author , investor
John C. Maxwell photo
John C. Maxwell 145
American author, speaker and pastor
Edward Abbey photo
Edward Abbey 146
American author and essayist