Louis Leakey Quotes


"South Africa had a long record of studies in prehistory, going back to the end of the last century."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: End)

"The Dalmatian breed of dog has many primitive characteristics."
- Louis Leakey
"The Foxhall jaw has now been missing for many years."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Now, Years)

"The majority of people in Angola were not provided with any kind of schooling and were completely illiterate, very badly paid, and treated almost as slaves."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: People, Majority)

"The trip I made to Angola to study the prehistoric contents of the gravel beds as a means of deciding the age of the deposits and their economic potential was the first time prehistory had ever been used for such a purpose."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Age, Time, Purpose, Beds, First, Potential, Study)

"There is tragic evidence to show that the paintings at the French prehistoric art sites are deteriorating."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Art)

"We set up the promised clinic for the sick and wounded Masai."
- Louis Leakey
"Sometime during the many millions of years that have elapsed since mammalian faunas came into existence, some sort of island crossed from West Africa to South America."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: America, Existence, Years)

"Sometimes string figures were used to illustrate stories, as in the case of an Eskimo example that depicts a man catching a salmon. Sometimes they had magic or religious significance."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Example, Magic, Man, Religious)

"To save an animal's life in order that it may suffer indefinitely is something I would never condone."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Life, May, Order)

"I have examined the stomach contents of seven aardvarks."
- Louis Leakey
"Raising funds for my fourth expedition proved to be very difficult."
- Louis Leakey
"At Olduvai, for 20 years, Mary and I had investigated and made a general survey of the overall geology."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Years)

"Colonial governors and senior civil servants are not easy people to argue with, and I was not popular because of my criticism of the colonial service in Kenya."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: People, Criticism, Popular, Service)

"The author knows just what he wants to illustrate and how he would like it to be done."
- Louis Leakey
"I felt that in time simple stone tools would be found in early Pleistocene in England."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Time, England, Tools)

"I kept an open mind on the question of whether a hominid had been present in Europe in the early Pleistocene."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Europe, Mind, Open, Present, Question)

"I put a bullet into the back of the crocodile's neck just behind the head, thus killing it. If a crocodile is hit in any other part of its anatomy it disappears into the water and is irrecoverable."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Killing, Water)

"I saw what looked like another fallen tree in front of me and put my foot on it to cross over. At that moment it reared up in front of me-the biggest python I had ever seen!"
- Louis Leakey
"Most Kikuyu marriages were arranged on the basis of what is described by anthropologists as the bride price."
- Louis Leakey
"Although we followed that hyena for the best part of half an hour, we never caught up with it."
- Louis Leakey
"Far too often animals are put to sleep when they could be saved through proper care and nursing."
- Louis Leakey
(Related: Animals, Care, Sleep)