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. WILSONAn 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. WILSONAim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure.
E. O. WILSONThe 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. WILSONPolitical ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
E. O. WILSONOf course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.
E. O. WILSONYou 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. WILSONThe 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.
E. O. WILSONThere doesn’t seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs.
E. O. WILSONIf all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago.
E. O. WILSONBy any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.
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.
E. O. WILSONPerhaps the time has come to cease calling it the ‘environmentalist’ view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.
E. O. WILSONTrue character arises from a deeper well than religion.
E. O. WILSONAnts are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.
E. O. WILSONPersist! The world needs all you can give.
E. O. WILSONOne thing I did was grow up as an ardent naturalist. I never grew out of my bug period.
E. O. WILSON