"… if you look back into history, the way the world has divided up into, say, linguistic groups, cultural groups, is ultimately under the control of geology. So, for example, think of the differences between the peoples north and south of the Himalayas. It’s extremely hard for people to cross – even the individual valleys within the Himalayas have cultural differences. Their history has been controlled to a large extent by those barriers. That’s a great control. But even on a small scale, the way cities looked – you know, the kind of cities that could be built – was controlled by the rocks that underlay it. For example, you could build tower blocks in New York because you had that nice, firm metamorphic rock to drive your piles down into. And the particular building stones are what have given, well, let’s say the majority of French cities and towns their own peculiar and interesting flavor. So geology controls the character of the world to a large extent."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Naturalists from EnglandNon-fiction authors from EnglandCuratorsAutobiographers from EnglandGeologists from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
(Richard Fortey interviewed by )
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Fortey
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Fortey
(15 February 1946 – 7 March 2025) was an English , and palaeontologist, specialising in s. After graduating with a PhD in geology from the University of Cambridge, he had a long career as curator and palaeontologist at London’s . He was elected in 1997 a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2007 President of the Geological Society of London. Two of his books became ' bestsellers. He was awarded in 2000 the , in 2003 the , and in 2006 both the and the .
11 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Fortey →
Related Quotes
"One lies upturned on the sand. Its tail sake waggles feebly, quite unable to perform the task of turning the body bac…"
"I ought to introduce you to trilobites ... fossil arthropods distantly related to the s and s of today, but very dist…"
"Collecting a pile of fossils is only the beginning. Many fossils are only fragments of the whole animal or plant. To …"
"... Time piles rock upon rock. The sea comes and goes with the passing geological ages. Unless other events intervene…"
"The public galleries take up much less than half of the space of the Natural History Museum. Tucked away, mostly out …"
"The trilobites, of course, overall have a fantastic variety of morphologies — fantastic variety of shapes. So you wou…"
"Fossil hunting was a slightly more esoteric pastime, but what is perhaps most telling about Fortey’s childhood was hi…"
"In 2011, after retiring from his role as senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, and following a windfa…"
"… Trilobite expert, tiddlywinks player, mushroom hunter, poetry enthusiast and ardent lover of the museum, Fortey joi…"
"It was that did it for me. “Dr was an eccentric in the grand manner … he always wore hand-tooled cowboy boots with el…"