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.
E. O. WILSONPersist! The world needs all you can give.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.
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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.
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Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.
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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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The education of women is the best way to save the environment.
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The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.
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Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.
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Because the living environment is what really sustains us.
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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.
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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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Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds… is not productive.
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Every kid has a bug period… I never grew out of mine.
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People respect nonfiction but they read novels.
E. O. WILSON






