Quotessence
Home / Authors / E. O. Wilson
E. O. Wilson

E. O. Wilson Quotes

Biologist

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldSpeciesHumansPeopleEvolutionIfsWayEnvironmentHumanityNaturalAntsScienceMindKnowsThinkingEarthYearsDiversityBiologyReligion

Famous E. O. Wilson Quotes

“The naturalist is a civilized hunter. He goes alone into the field or woodland and closes his mind to everything but that time and place, so that life around him presses in on all the senses and small details grow in significance. He begins the scanning search for which cognition was engineered. His mind becomes unfocused, it focuses on everything, no longer directed toward any ordinary task or social pleasantry.”

MindSocialGrowsFieldsOrdinaryTasksPressesDetailsSensesSignificanceCivilizedHuntersCognitionNaturalistWoodlandSmall DetailsScanningPleasantries
Author:E. O. Wilson
Create image

“Yes, the natural sciences are telling us a great deal about human origins, the origins of our species the origins of our minds; we're on our way to explaining a large part of it. I'll accept an answer provided only by such means as obtaining and exploring, analyzing and arguing over the evidence - not because of a scribe's myopic view of the subject written 500 years before the birth of Christ!”

WayYearsMindHumansMeanChristNaturalAnswersViewsDealsAcceptingWrittenAtheismSubjectsBirthEvidenceSpeciesPositive AtheismArguingExploringExplainingAnalyzingObtainingNatural ScienceMyopicScribes
Author:E. O. Wilson
Create image

“Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.”

WorldMindWarRealFactsAgeTodayHumanityStarsHoursSleepEmotionExistenceTechnologyFantasyDangerCivilizationStonesInstitutionsMereChaosCaughtConfusedReal WorldWakingDreamerPreciseMedievalGodlikeRest Of LifeStone Age
Author:E. O. Wilson
Create image

“The green prehuman earth is the mystery we were chosen to solve, a guide to the birthplace of our spirit, but it is slipping away. The way back seems harder every year. If there is danger in the human trajectory, it is not so much in the survival of our own species as in the fulfillment of the ultimate irony of organic evolution: that in the instant of achieving self-understanding, through the mind of man, life has doomed its most beautiful creations. And thus humanity closes the door on its past.”

IfsMenWayYearsMindHumansSelfSeemsEarthPastBeautifulSpiritHumanityUnderstandingDoorsMysteryAchieveDangerCreationEvolutionSurvivalUltimateHarderGreenSpeciesSolveGuidesChosenIronyFulfillmentInstantDoomedSlippingTrajectorySelf UnderstandingBirthplaceSlipping Away
Author:E. O. Wilson
Create image