We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It’s about conflicts between creation stories.
E. O. WILSONWithout 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.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
-
-
In some ways, I had a traditional ‘old South’ upbringing, meaning that I spent some time in a military school, and acquired an
E. O. WILSON -
Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.
E. O. WILSON -
This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
E. O. WILSON -
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.
E. O. WILSON -
If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
E. O. WILSON -
Of 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. WILSON -
Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds… is not productive.
E. O. WILSON -
There doesn’t seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs.
E. O. WILSON -
Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength.
E. O. WILSON -
A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.
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 -
Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.
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 -
Willing to try to get a better atmosphere through a demonstration of democratic principles, fairness and cooperation, a better product, those will win in the end.
E. O. WILSON -
Persist! The world needs all you can give.
E. O. WILSON -
Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.
E. O. WILSON -
Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.
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 -
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.
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 -
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?
E. O. WILSON -
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 -
By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.
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 -
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.
E. O. WILSON -
One thing I did was grow up as an ardent naturalist. I never grew out of my bug period.
E. O. WILSON