E. O. Wilson Quotes
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The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology.
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Much of good science - and perhaps all of great science - has its roots in fantasy.
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Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.
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The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
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It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer.
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Pure knowledge is the ultimate emancipator. It equalizes people and sovereign states, erodes the archaic barriers of superstition and promises to lift the trajectory of cultural evolution. But I do not believe that it can change the ground rules of human behavior or alter the main course of history's predictable trajectory.
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Ants are the dominant insects of the world, and they've had a great impact on habitats almost all over the land surface of the world for more than 50-million years.
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The rules followed are tight enough to produce a broad overlap in the decisions taken by all individuals and hence a convergence powerful enough to be labelled human nature.
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The newborn infant is now seen to be wired with awesome precision... This marvelous robot will be launched into the world under the care of its parents... But to what extent does the wiring of the neurons, so undeniably encoded in the genes, preordain the directions that social development will follow?
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My definition of a scientist is that you can complete the following sentence: ‘he or she has shown that…’,'
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The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.
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The central idea of the philosophy of behaviorism, that behavior and the mind have an entirely materialist basis subject to experimental analysis, is fundamentally sound.
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There can be no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.
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People respect nonfiction but they read novels.
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You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
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One thing I did was grow up as an ardent naturalist. I never grew out of my bug period.
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In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems.
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If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
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It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.
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Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive.
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We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there.
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The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago.
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So in my freshman year at the University of Alabama, learning the literature on evolution, what was known about it biologically, just gradually transformed me by taking me out of literalism and increasingly into a more secular, scientific view of the world.
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What we need is an electronic encyclopedia of life, with one page for each species. On each page is given everything known about that species.