E. O. Wilson

Quotations

  • “The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “The education of women is the best way to save the environment.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. 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. Wilson

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  • “If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. 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. Wilson

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  • “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

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  • “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

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  • “Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds… is not productive.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “I thought perhaps it should be recognized that religious people, including fundamentalists, are quite intelligent, many of them are highly educated, and they should be treated with complete respect.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it’s Southern Baptist or Islam or any religion that believes in a supernatural supervalance over humanity.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity, and that being able to join in musical activity, along with dancing, could have been necessary at a very early stage of human culture.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “So in my freshman year at the University of Alabama, learning the literature on evolution, what was known about it biologically, just gradually transformed me by taking me out of literalism and increasingly into a more secular, scientific view of the world.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “I had in mind a message, although I hope it doesn’t intrude too badly, persuading Americans, and especially Southerners, of the critical importance of land and our vanishing natural environment and wildlife.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.” -E. O. Wilson

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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.” -E. O. Wilson

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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?” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “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

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  • “The education of women is the best way to save the environment.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • “The education of women is the best way to save the environment.” -E. O. Wilson

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  • If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months. – E. O. Wilson

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