Biologist

Explore 58 quotes by Biologists

Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts which simply do not make evolutionary sense.

Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene

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Topic

Evolution

Author

Richard Dawkins

Source

The Selfish Gene

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, 1976, ch. 1.

The necessity of making things plain to uninstructed people, was one of the very best means of clearing up the obscure corners in one's own mind.

T.H. Huxley

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Topic

Thinking clearly Teaching

Author

T.H. Huxley

Source

Man's Place in Nature

Language

English

Time

1894 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. Man's Place in Nature and Other Anthropological Essays. London: Macmillan, 1894, preface.

Current Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. Man's Place in Nature, edited by Stephen Jay Gould. Random House, 2001, preface.

The great tragedy of Science-the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

T.H. Huxley

Read Biogenesis and Abiogenesis at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Science

Speaker

T.H. Huxley

Source

Biogenesis and Abiogenesis

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "Biogenesis and Abiogenesis." British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. 1870, London, England, UK.

They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence...they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.

Richard Dawkins

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Topic

Genetics Biology

Author

Richard Dawkins

Source

The Selfish Gene

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, 1976, ch. 2.

The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform.

Alfred Kinsey

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Topic

Sex

Speaker

Alfred Kinsey

Source

The Homosexual in America Time Magazine

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1966 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kinsey, Alfred. "Essay: The Homosexual in America." Time Magazine, 21 Jan. 1966.

Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

T.H. Huxley

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Topic

Tenacity Patience Persistence Perseverance

Speaker

T.H. Huxley

Source

On Medical Education

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "On Medical Education." 1870, University College London, London, England, UK.

Current Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "On Medical Education." Collected Essays. Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.

T.H. Huxley

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Topic

Learning from mistakes Failure

Speaker

T.H. Huxley

Source

On Medical Education

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "On Medical Education." 1870, University College London, London, England, UK.

Current Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "On Medical Education." Collected Essays. Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only as far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club.

T.H. Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

Science

Author

T.H. Huxley

Source

On the Method of Zadig

Medium

Essay

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Huxley, Thomas Henry. "The Method of Zadig." 1880, Working Men's College, London, England, UK. Lecture.

Life is a copiously branching bush, continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction, not a ladder of predictable progress.

Stephen Jay Gould

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Topic

Randomness Life

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

Wonderful Life

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Gould, Stephen Jay. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. W. W. Norton & Co., 1989, ch. 1.

The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.

Paul Ralph Ehrlich

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Topic

Tinkering DIY

Speaker

Paul Ralph Ehrlich

Source

Saturday Review

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Ehrlich, Paul Ralph. Quoted in Saturday Review. 5 June 1971.

We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction.

Stephen Jay Gould

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Topic

Intelligent life Human evolution Evolution Randomness

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

Full House

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gould, Stephen Jay. Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin. Harmony Books, 1996, pt. 4, ch. 14.

"You", your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.

Francis Crick

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Topic

Free will The soul Nature of man

Author

Francis Crick

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Crick, Frances. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994, ch. 1.

Science is an integral part of culture. It's not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It's one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.

Stephen Jay Gould

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of science Science

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

The Independent

Genre

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Gould, Stephen Jay. Independent. 24 Jan. 1990.

It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.

Francis Crick

Proposing the double helix as the structure of DNA.

More information about this quote

Topic

DNA Genetics Biology Moments of discovery

Author

Francis Crick

Source

Nature

Medium

Magazine

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Crick, Francis and James D. Watson. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." Nature, 25 Apr. 1953.

The truth is that we need invertebrates but they don't need us. If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change... But if invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt that the human species could last more than a few months.

E.O. Wilson

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and animals Man and nature

Speaker

E.O. Wilson

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Wilson, Edward Osborne. "The Little Things That Run the World." The opening of the invertebrates exhibit. 7 May 1987, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, USA.

The most dangerous of devotions, in my opinion, is the one endemic to Christianity: I was not born to be of this world. With a second life waiting, suffering can be endured-especially in other people. The natural environment can be used up. Enemies of the faith can be savaged and suicidal martyrdom praised.

E.O. Wilson

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Topic

Criticism of religion Christianity

Author

E.O. Wilson

Source

Consilience

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wilson, Edward Osborne. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, ch. 11.

The priest persuades humble people to endure their hard lot; the politician urges them to rebel against it; and the scientist thinks of a method that does away with the hard lot altogether.

Max Perutz

More information about this quote

Topic

Scientific progress Science Religion Politics

Author

Max Perutz

Source

Is Science Necessary?

Medium

Essay

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Perutz, Max. Is Science Necessary? Essays on Science and Scientists. E.P. Dutton, 1989.

Wind back the tape of life to the early days of the Burgess Shale; let it play again from an identical starting point, and the chance becomes vanishingly small that anything like human intelligence would grace the replay.

Stephen Jay Gould

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Topic

Intelligent life Randomness Evolution

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

Wonderful Life

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gould, Stephen Jay. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. W. W. Norton & Co., 1989, preface.