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.
E. O. WILSONThe variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
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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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Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice.
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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.
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It’s always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That’s just in human relationships.
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Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
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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.
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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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Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure.
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Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we’re hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.
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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.
E. O. WILSON