E. O. Wilson

“I tend to believe that religious dogma is a consequence of evolution.”

“Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.”

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”

“It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere.”

“I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and fully aware of themselves.”

“I thought perhaps it should be recognized that religious people, including fundamentalists, are quite intelligent, many of them are highly educated, and they should be treated with complete respect.”

“In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time.”

“America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.”

“In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems.”

“I had in mind a message, although I hope it doesn't intrude too badly, persuading Americans, and especially Southerners, of the critical importance of land and our vanishing natural environment and wildlife.”

“If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.”

“Well, let me tell you, ants are the dominant insects. They make up as much as a quarter of the biomass of all insects in the world. They are the principal predators. They're the cemetery workers.”

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

“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.”

“It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer.”

“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.”

“Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.”

“Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.”

“Secular humanists can sit around and talk about their love of humanity, but it doesn't stack up against a two-millennium-old funeral high mass.”

“Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.”