Mary Leakey Quotations

I dug things up. I was curious. I liked to draw what I found.

The first money I ever earned was for drawing stone tools.

Theories come and go, but fundamental data always remain the same.

I go once a year to the Serengeti to see the wildebeest migrations because that means a lot to me, but I avoid Olduvai if I can because it is a ruin. It is most depressing.

I had never passed a single school exam, and clearly never would.

I'd rather be in a tent than in a house.

You only find what you are looking for, really, if the truth be known.

She stops, pauses, turns to the left to glance at some possible threat or irregularity, and then continues to the north. This motion, so intensely human, transcends time.

I quite liked having a baby - I think I won't put it more strongly than that. But I had no intention of allowing motherhood to disrupt my work as an archeologist.

No amounts of stone and bone could yield the kinds of information that the paintings gave so freely.

I got too old to live in the bush. You really need to be youngish and healthy, so it seemed stupid to keep going.

Now this really is something to put on the mantelpiece.

I think it's the most important find in view of human evolution. I was really looking for tools, but we never found any at the site.

Once she summed up her carrer simply: 'I dug things up. I was curious. And then I liked to draw what i found

I never felt interpretation was my job.

There were details like clothing, hair styles and the fragile objects that hardly ever survive for the archaeologist-musical instruments, bows and arrows, and body ornaments depicted as they were worn... No amounts of stone and bone could yield the kinds of information that the paintings gave so freely

Theories come and go, but fundamental data always remains.