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. WILSONIn 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.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
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Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company.
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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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Persist! The world needs all you can give.
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By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.
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Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it’s a map with constant immediate sensory input.
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There is no better high than discovery.
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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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Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
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The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.
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Every kid has a bug period… I never grew out of mine.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way.
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The essence of humanity’s spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way to erase the dilemma, to resolve the contradictions between the transcendentalist and the empiricist world views?
E. O. WILSON






