Donald Johanson

“The fossil record is like a book with most of its pages missing, and the pages that are there are torn and tattered.”

“Conflict is a part of the human condition. It is our job to tap into our inner humanity and build bridges of understanding.”

“Fossils are the tangible evidence of evolution. They are the remnants of life in the past.”

“It is in our genes to be explorers, to be curious about our surrounds and to venture into the unknown.”

“There is no way we can possibly understand the human condition and the human events of the last 30,000 years without having a deeper understanding of where we came from.”

“Nobody will ever find a complete skeleton of a hominid. I'll bet my life on it.”

“Evolution is one of the most powerful and important ideas ever developed in the history of science. Every question it asks is about where we came from and where we are going.”

“The Beatles' song 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' was playing on a tape recorder in camp the night of the discovery, and that's how she got her name.”

“We are all Africans, and we are all related. The differences that we see among peoples today are recent and superficial.”

“Lucy was a single discovery. It was a snapshot. It was a moment in time. It was a pivotal moment in our understanding, but it is by no means the end of the story.”

“Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.”

“The thing that I think is unique about human beings is our ability to project into the future and to reflect on the past.”