Ernst Mayr Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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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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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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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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Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom.
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Mankind led on by gods err all too easily.
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Mankind . . . possesses two supreme blessings. First of these is the goddess Demeter, or Earth whichever name you choose to call her by. It was she who gave to man his nourishment of grain. But after her there came the son of Semele, who matched her present by inventing liquid wine as his gift to man. For filled with that good gift, suffering mankind forgets its grief; from it comes sleep; with it oblivion of the troubles of the day. There is no other medicine for misery.
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It is the law of love that rules mankind.
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Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
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Contentment comes from wanting what we need, not needing what we want.
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There are two terrible things for a man: not to have fulfilled his dream, and to have fulfilled it.
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I feel that one species, mankind, doesn't have the right to exterminate.
