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.
E. O. WILSONPeople 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.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
-
-
It’s always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That’s just in human relationships.
E. O. WILSON -
Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.
E. O. WILSON -
When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.
E. O. WILSON -
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 -
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. WILSON -
Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
E. O. WILSON -
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.
E. O. WILSON -
If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago.
E. O. WILSON -
You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path.
E. O. WILSON -
Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we’re hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.
E. O. WILSON -
Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it’s a map with constant immediate sensory input.
E. O. WILSON -
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
E. O. WILSON -
In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems.
E. O. WILSON -
The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can.
E. O. WILSON -
Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.
E. O. WILSON