E. O. Wilson

“To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse us and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong.”

“People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will find a way to keep ancestral spirits alive.”

“Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?”

“Real biologists who actually do the research will tell you that they almost never find a phenomenon, no matter how odd or irrelevant it looks when they first see it, that doesn't prove to serve a function. The outcome itself may be due to small accidents of evolution.”

“When you get into the whole field of exploring, probably 90 percent of the kinds of organisms, plants, animals and especially microorganisms and tiny invertebrate animals are unknown. Then you realize that we live on a relatively unexplored plan.”

“The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist or Islam or any religion that believes in a supernatural supervalance over humanity.”

“Because the living environment is what really sustains us.”

“Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input.”

“If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.”

“I'm very much a Christian in ideals and ethics, especially in terms of belief in fairness, a deep set obligation to others, and the virtues of charity, tolerance and generosity that we associate with traditional Christian teaching.”

“But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity, and that being able to join in musical activity, along with dancing, could have been necessary at a very early stage of human culture.”

“I had reached a point in my career in which I was ready to try something new in my writing, and the idea of a novel has always been in the back of my mind.”

“We have decommissioned natural selection and must now look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become.”

“Ants make up two-thirds of the biomass of all the insects. There are millions of species of organisms and we know almost nothing about them.”

“Jehovah had nothing to say to Moses and the others about the care of the planet. He had plenty to say about tribal loyalty and conquest.”

“Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.”

“What's been gratifying is to live long enough to see molecular biology and evolutionary biology growing toward each other and uniting in research efforts.”

“The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient biosphere.”

“In my heart, I'm an Alabaman who went up north to work.”

“I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it.”