Stephen Jay Gould Quotes

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

Stephen Jay Gould

• Judgment
• Manipulation
• Hopes

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Quotes to Explore

• We are not angels, we are merely sophisticated apes. Yet we feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, craving transcendence and all the time trying to spread our wings and fly off, and it's really a very odd predicament to be in, if you think about it.

  

  Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
  • Time
  • Trying
  • Fly

• I would love a family. I'm at the age where the wish for a child gets stronger. But who knows.

  

  Cameron Diaz
  • Family
  • Wish
  • Child

• That nature does not care, one way or the other, is the true abyss. That only man cares, in his finitude facing nothing but death, alone with his contingency and the objective meaninglessness of his projecting meanings, is a truly unprecedented situation.

  

  Hans Jonas
  • True
  • Nature
  • Death

• We need to send Barack Obama back to Chicago. I'd like to send him back to Kenya, back to Indonesia. We have to unmask this man. This is a man that seeks to destroy all concept of God. And I will tell you what, this is classical Marxist philosophy.

  

  Rafael Cruz
  • God
  • Man
  • Philosophy

• I could hum Beatles songs before I could talk - not very well, but sort of.

  

  Taylor Momsen
  • Very
  • Talk
  • Well

• I'd rather rot on my own floor than be found by a bunch of bingo players in a nursing home.

  

  Florence King
  • Home
  • Rather
  • My Own

• Political and social change is always a stagger-step process. One step forward, two steps back. They want you to give up.

  

  Hal Sparks
  • Up
  • Political
  • Change

• To inform, and, therefore to reconnoitre, this is the first and constant duty of the advanced guard.

  

  Ferdinand Foch

• If poetry is like an orgasm, an academic can be likened to someone who studies the passion-stains on the bedsheets.

  

  Irving Layton
  • Passion
  • Poetry

• You would think that pot had some kind of power; I mean come on, it’s a plant, not a reason for living. Controlled by a plant, how hilarious. A plant! A fucking plant!

  

  Henry Rollins Black Flag
  • Power
  • Plant
  • Hilarious

• Paranormal fiction offers authors - and readers - the chance to answer the question, 'What if?' All the different ways that question can be answered make for extremely entertaining reading.

  

  Jeaniene Frost
  • Different
  • Reading
  • Question

• 'No Burden' is not necessarily ferocious.

  

  Lucy Dacus

• Much like dystopian and post-apocalyptic books are a way to explore the worst-case scenarios lurking around the corner, fantasy can serve as a wonderful tool for showing kids that they have an inherent power in them to create change, both in themselves and in their community.

  

  Alexandra Bracken
  • Kids
  • Power
  • Community

• Congress suffers a great deal of criticism for its partisan acrimony. But while we may disagree politically, and air our opposition in this chamber, it is the conversation behind the scenes that cements and defines our relationships.

  

  Kay Bailey Hutchison
  • Great
  • May
  • Air

• I have nothing but respect for the Lakers. So many of their legends shaped who I am as a person and player.

  

  Bill Walton
  • Respect
  • Player

• The reality is that people know my character, and they know my service.

  

  Joe Garcia
  • People
  • Character
  • Reality

• A lot of my characters are underdogs or sad or lonely, but I had a comfortable, golden sort of childhood.

  

  Anthony Browne
  • Childhood
  • Sad
  • Lonely

• Animation is a fascinating area from an acting point of view because it's not really like anything else because you are only providing a portion of the performance. That's very inspiring and it forces you to do things in a different way - to tell stories through your voice.

  

  David Tennant
  • Different

• The unambitious sluggard pretends that the eminence is not worth attaining, declines altogether the struggle, and calls himself a philosopher. I say he is a poor-spirited coward.

  

  William Makepeace Thackeray
  • Struggle
  • Poor
  • Philosopher

• I am an arrogant and impatient listener, but in the case of a few composers, a very few, when I hear a work I do not like, I am convinced that it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composers.

  

  Benjamin Britten
  • Fault
  • Composer
  • Listener

• Yes, and our kid brother Superhero has died so many times that the readers barely even notice anymore.

  

  Bill Willingham
  • Kid
  • Superhero
  • Readers

• It seems clear that the prophetic times I have been expecting for decades have finally arrived. And even worse, it appears that the judgment of America has begun...

  

  Hal Lindsey
  • America
  • Judgment
  • Times

• As a Texas loyalist who followed Bush to Washington with great hope and personal affection and as a proud member of his administration, I was all too ready to give him and his highly experienced foreign policy advisers the benefit of the doubt on Iraq. Unfortunately, subsequent events have showed that our willingness to trust the judgment of Bush and his team was misplaced.

  

  Scott McClellan
  • Giving
  • Team
  • Proud

• When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

  

  Stephen Jay Gould
  • Judgment
  • Manipulation
  • Hopes