A biography for E. O. Wilsonhasn’t been written yet.
“I've found that good dialogue tells you not only what people are saying or how they're communicating but it tells you a great deal - by dialect and tone, content and circumstance - about the quality of the character.”
“We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories.”
“Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company, willing to try to get a better atmosphere through a demonstration of democratic principles, fairness and cooperation, a better product, those will win in the end.”
“The ant world is a tumult, a noisy world of pheromones being passed back and forth.”
“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.”
“There doesn't seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs.”
“Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.”
“It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.”
“Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.”
“Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.”
“An individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being's, can learn a maze; the kind we use is a simple rat maze in a laboratory. They can learn it about one-half as fast as a rat.”
“Once I feel I'm right, I have enjoyed provoking.”
“It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.”
“Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.”
“In addition I wanted to write a Southern novel, because I'm a Southerner.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“But once the ants and termites jumped the high barrier that prevents the vast variety of evolving animal groups from becoming fully social, they dominated the world.”
“The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.”