Ernst Mayr Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Mankind can be very magnanimous, given the chance.
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The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.
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I am a worrier. I worry about the state of our country, of the world, of our species. Every day seems to deliver a new nail to hammer into our collective coffin.
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Advocating the expansion of the powers of the state is treason to mankind, goddamnit!
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I do not believe in a God who maliciously or arbitrarily interferes in the personal affairs of mankind. My religion consists of an humble admiration for the vast power which manifests itself in that small part of the universe which our poor, weak minds can grasp!
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Why is it that no other species but man gets bored? Under the circumstances in which a man gets bored, a dog goes to sleep.
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When I am at a dinner table, I love to ask everybody, 'How long do you think our species might last?' I've read that the average age of a species, of any species, is about two million years. Is it possible we can have an average life span as a species? And do you picture us two million years more or a million and a half years, or 5,000?
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To the mass of mankind religion of some kind is a necessity.
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It's very interesting to think about the distinction with mind, which I just made in very general terms, but it can be made more profound when we think that there are many species, many creatures on earth that are very likely to have a mind, but are very unlikely to have a consciousness in the sense that you and I have.
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The most effective way to save endangered species is to protect the places they need to live.
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Power is what spoils people. Yes, it seems to me that the seeking after power is the great danger and the great corruptor of mankind.
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There is today a frightful disappearance of living species, be they plants or animals. And it's clear that the density of human beings has become so great, if I can say so, that they have begun to poison themselves. And the world in which I am finishing my existence is no longer a world that I like.
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The mass of mankind are evidently slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.
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Meanness is more ingrained in man's nature than Prodigality; the mass of mankind are avaricious rather than open-handed.
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All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
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Both Self-restraint and Unrestraint are a matter of extremes as compared with the character of the mass of mankind; the restrained man shows more and the unrestrained man less steadfastness than most men are capable of.
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Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.
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Meals, in the sense in which we understand this word, began with the second age of the human species.
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Basketball is basketball.
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Motto at the top of the score of his Symphony 4: Inextinguishable
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I desire not to desire, for my will is without value, since I am ignorant in any case. Therefore choose Thou for me what thou knowest to be best and do not put my perdition in what my autonomy and free choice prefer.
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Concealed anger is to be feared; but hatred openly manifested destroys its chance of revenge.
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If we somehow could win a couple, our last 10 would be a very good record against top 20 teams. We have to keep grinding because that's what the Big Ten is about. We're playing against teams that beat us the first time, and we're trying to show we've improved by getting some of these guys on the way out.
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I feel that one species, mankind, doesn't have the right to exterminate.
