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Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould Quotes

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Famous Stephen Jay Gould Quotes

“Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.”

IfsShouldHumansActionNaturalSimpleAnimalViewsProductsBehaviorArgumentShould HaveBasesAriseNervousPrimariesHuman BehaviorSelectionNatural SelectionFallacyNervous System
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“[E]volutionists sometimes take as haughty an attitude toward the next level up the conventional ladder of disciplines: the human sciences. They decry the supposed atheoretical particularism of their anthropological colleagues and argue that all would be well if only the students of humanity regarded their subject as yet another animal and therefore yielded explanatory control to evolutionary biologists.”

IfsHumansWellsSometimesWould BeHumanityNextAnimalLevelsAttitudeSubjectsStudentsDisciplineArguingConventionalColleaguesLaddersNext LevelBiologistHaughty
Book:An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas
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“[T]ruly grand and powerful theories [...] do not and cannot rest upon single observations. Evolution is an inference from thousands of independent sources, the only conceptual structure that can make unified sense of all this disparate information. The failure of a particular claim usually records a local error, not the bankruptcy of a central theory. [...] If I mistakenly identify your father's brother as your own dad, you don't become genealogically rootless and created de novo. You still have a father; we just haven't located him properly.”

IfsStillsFatherPowerfulRecordsHavensInformationParticularBrotherTheorySourceEvolutionDadClaimsIndependentStructureErrorsLocalsObservationBankruptcyUnifiedInference
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Words change their meanings, just as organisms evolve. We would impose an enormous burden on our economy if we insisted on payment in cattle every time we identified a bonus as a pecuniary advantage (from the Latin pecus , or cattle, a verbal fossil from a former commercial reality).”

IfsRealityEconomyAdvantageBurdenEnormousFormerEvolveLatinOrganismsFossilsPaymentCattleBonus
Book:The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
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“Darwinian evolution may be the most truthful and powerful idea ever generated by Western Science, but if we continue to illustrate our conviction with an indefensible, unsupported, entirely speculative, and basically rather silly story, then we are clothing a thing of beauty in rags - and we should be ashamed, "for the apparel oft proclaims the man.”

IfsMenShouldMayIdeasStoriesPowerfulHe ManEvolutionWesternConvictionSillyAshamedClothingsTruthfulRagsApparel
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
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“If we make this readjustment to view Homo sapiens as an ultimate in oddball rarity, and life at bacterial grade as the common expression of a universal phenomenon, then we could finally ask the truly fundamental question raised by the prospect of Martian fossils. If life originates as a general property of the material universe under certain conditions (probably often realized), then how much can the basic structure and constitution of life vary from place to independent place?”

IfsCertainUniverseAsksViewsCommonConditionsExpressionMaterialsUltimateUniversalConstitutionIndependentFundamentalsStructurePropertyRaisedGradesPhenomenonFossilsVaryHomo SapiensRarityMartiansOddballs
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Iconography becomes even more revealing when processes or concepts, rather than objects, must be depicted for the constraint of a definite "thing" cedes directly to the imagination. How can we draw "evolution" or "social organization," not to mention the more mundane "digestion" or "self-interest," without portraying more of a mental structure than a physical reality? If we wish to trace the history of ideas, iconography becomes a candid camera trained upon the scholar's mind.”

IfsMindIdeasSelfRealityWishSocialProcessInterestImaginationObjectsEvolutionDrawsConceptsOrganizationCamerasStructureScholarDefiniteRevealingSelf InterestMundaneConstraintsDigestionCandidPortrayingSocial OrganizationIconographyCandid Camera
Book:Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history
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“We debase the richness of both nature and our own minds if we view the great pageant of our intellectual history as a compendium of new information leading from primal superstition to final exactitude. We know that the sun is hub of our little corner of the universe, and that ties of genealogy connect all living things on our planet, because these theories assemble and explain so much otherwise disparate and unrelated information not because Galileo trained his telescope on the moons of Jupiter or because Darwin took a ride on a Galápagos tortoise.”

IfsKnowsMindLittlesUniverseViewsSunInformationPlanetsTheoryMoonIntellectualFinalsCornersTiesSuperstitionsOur PlanetLiving ThingsRichnessPrimalTelescopesJupiterPageantGenealogyGalsNew InformationHubTortoisesExactitude
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“The vigorous branching of life's tree, and not the accumulating valor of mythical marches to progress, lies behind the persistence and expansion of organic diversity in our tough and constantly stressful world. And if we do not grasp the fundamental nature of branching as the key to life's passage across the geological stage, we will never understand evolution aright.”

IfsWorldLyingBehindsProgressTreeStageKeysEvolutionDiversityToughFundamentalsPersistenceMarchPassagesExpansionStressfulVigorousValor
Book:I Have Landed: Splashes and Reflections in Natural History
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“If you defend a behavior by arguing that people are programmed directly for it, then how do you continue to defend it if your speculation is wrong, for the behavior then becomes unnatural and worthy of condemnation. Better to stick resolutely to a philosophical position on human liberty: what free adults do with each other in their own private lives is their business alone. It need not be vindicated and must not be condemned by genetic speculation.”

PeopleIfsNeedsHumansLife IsLibertyPositionBehaviorAdultsPhilosophicalSticksWorthyArguingSpeculationPrivate LifeUnnaturalCondemnationVindicated
Book:Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History
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“Organisms [...] are directed and limited by their past. They must remain imperfect in their form and function, and to that extent unpredictable since they are not optimal machines. We cannot know their future with certainty, if only because a myriad of quirky functional shifts lie within the capacity of any feature, however well adapted to a present role.”

IfsKnowsWellsPastFormLyingRolesCapacityMachinesFunctionCertaintyFeaturesImperfectOrganismsUnpredictableAdaptedQuirkyOptimal
Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History
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“We may need simple and heroic legends for that peculiar genre of literature known as the textbook. But historians must also labor to rescue human beings from their legends in science if only so that we may understand the process of scientific thought aright.”

IfsNeedsHumansMayLiteratureProcessHuman BeingsSimpleKnownLaborGenreHistorianPeculiarLegendsHeroicRescueTextbooks
Book:The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History
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“I like to summarize what I regard as the pedestal-smashing messages of Darwin's revolution in the following statement, which might be chanted several times a day, like a Hare Krishna mantra, to encourage penetration into the soul: Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which, if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again, or perhaps any twig with any property that we would care to call consciousness.”

IfsHumansLittlesSoulEndsMightCareGrowsResultsConsciousnessProgressRevolutionMessagesRegardPropertyFollowingSeedsTinyStatementsCosmicPredictableKrishnaMantrasPedestalEnd ResultsHaresSmashingTwigsPenetrationAfterthoughtFortuitousHare Krishna
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Since the universe must contain millions of appropriate planets, consciousness in some form - but not with the paired eyes and limbs, and the brain built of neurons in the only example we know - may evolve frequently. But if only one origin of life in a million ever leads to consciousness, then Martian bacteria most emphatically do not imply Little Green Men.”

IfsKnowsMenMayLittlesEyeFormUniverseBrainConsciousnessMillionsExamplePlanetsBuiltGreenEvolveAppropriateLimbsNeuronsBacteriaOrigin Of LifeMartians
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
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“I believe that we can still have a genre of scientific books suitable for and accessible alike to professionals and interested laypeople. The concepts of science, in all their richness and ambiguity, can be presented without any compromise, without any simplification counting as distortion, in language accessible to all intelligent people. I hope that this book can be read with profit both in seminars for graduate students and if the movie stinks and you forgot your sleeping pills on the businessman's special to Tokyo.”

PeopleIfsBelieveStillsBookLanguageI BelieveSleepSpecialStudentsConceptsIntelligentProfitCompromiseGenreGraduatesBusinessmanPillsCountingRichnessAmbiguitySuitableDistortionStinkSimplificationTokyoGraduate StudentsSeminarsSleeping Pills
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“True majorities, in a TV-dominated and anti-intellectual age, may need sound bites and flashing lights and I am not against supplying such lures if they draw children into even a transient concern with science. But every classroom has one [Oliver] Sacks , one [Eric] Korn, or one [Jonathan] Miller , usually a lonely child with a passionate curiosity about nature, and a zeal that overcomes pressures for conformity. Do not the one in fifty deserve their institutions as well magic places, like cabinet museums, that can spark the rare flames of genius?”

IfsNeedsWellsMayChildrenLightAgeSoundMagicTvsGeniusIntellectualDrawsDeserveConcernLonelyOvercomingPressureInstitutionsMajorityCuriosityPassionateFlamesFiftyConformityMuseumsBitesSparksClassroomZealCabinetsTransientEricLureSound BitesFlashing LightsLonely Child
Book:Dinosaur in a haystack: reflections in natural history
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“If we choose a weak and foolish speculation as a primary textbook illustration (falsely assuming that the tale possesses a weight of history and a sanction of evidence), then we are in for trouble - as critics properly nail the particular weakness, and then assume that the whole theory must be in danger if supporters choose such a fatuous case as a primary illustration.”

IfsWholeCasesTroubleDangerParticularTheoryWeaknessEvidenceWeakWeightAssumingCriticsFoolishTalesPrimariesNailsSupporterSpeculationSanctionsTextbooksIllustration
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
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“If we are still here to witness the destruction of our planet some five billion years or more hence, then we will have achieved something so unprecedented in the history of life that we should be willing to sing our swansong with joy - Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.”

IfsShouldYearsStillsJoyFiveWillingPlanetsDestructionBillionsAstronomyWitnessOur PlanetUnprecedentedGloriaHistory Of Life
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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“Orchids manufacture their intricate devices from the common components of ordinary flowers, parts usually fitted for very different functions. If God had designed a beautiful machine to reflect his wisdom and power, surely he would not have used a collection of parts generally fashioned for other purposes. Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components. Thus, they must have evolved from ordinary flowers.”

IfsMadeDifferentBeautifulUsedPurposeCommonAtheismFlowerOrdinaryIdealsMachinesFunctionAvailablePositive AtheismCollectionsDevicesEngineersComponentsJuryIntricateRiggedOrchids
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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“If new species arise very rapidly in small, peripherally isolated local populations, then the great expectation of insensibly graded fossil sequences is a chimera. A new species does not evolve in the area of its ancestors; it does not arise from the slow transformation of all its forbears. co-author with Niles Eldridge”

IfsDoeExpectationsAreasTransformationSpeciesPopulationAriseLocalsEvolveAncestorIsolatedFossilsSequenceGreat ExpectationsChimera
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“If any issue should unite liberals and conservatives, anyone who cares about the integrity of human achievement or respect for human accomplishment, may we not all pledge to avoid the silly censoring that can lead to a codification of Orwell's Newspeak? Consider John Milton's reasons for why good arguments are often lost: 'For want of words, no doubt, or lack of breath!'”

IfsWantShouldHumansMayReasonCareLostIssuesDoubtInternetIntegrityAchievementArgumentBreathsSillyAccomplishmentNo DoubtFree SpeechWho CaresPledgeMiltonCensoring
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“The myriad valleys could have arisen anywhere on the landscape. The current positions are quite accidental. If we could repeat the experiment, we might obtain no valleys at all, or a completely different system. Yet we now stand at the shore line contemplating the fine spacing of valleys and their even contact with the sea. How easy it is to be misled and to assume that no other landscape could possibly have arisen.”

IfsDifferentMightEasyLinesSeaPositionFineEvolutionAssumingCurrentsExperimentsContactLandscapeRepeatsShoreValleysContemplatingMisledSpacing
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Speciation does not necessarily promote evolutionary change; rather, speciation 'gathers in' and guards evolutionary change by locking and stabilization for sufficient geological time within a Darwinian individual of the appropriate scale. If a change in a local population does not gain such protection, it becomes-to borrow Dawkins's metaphor at a macroevolutionary scale-a transient duststorm in the desert of time, a passing cloud without borders, integrity, or even the capacity to act as a unit of selection, in the panorama of life's phylogeny.”

IfsLifeDoeIndividualEvolutionIntegrityGainsCapacityCloudsMetaphorPopulationProtectionScalesLocalsPassingPassingsDesertBordersSufficientAppropriateUnitsSelectionTransientPanoramaGeological TimeSpeciation
Book:Punctuated Equilibrium
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“But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand. Human intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as we can tell. If intelligent people invested intense energy in issues that now seem foolish to us, then the failure lies in our understanding of their world, not in their distorted perceptions.”

PeopleIfsWorldYearsHumansSeemsLyingEnergyUnderstandingKnowledgeLaughingIssuesPerceptionIntellectualCapacityIntelligentFoolishIntenseAlteredDerision
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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“I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms.”

IfsHumansLittlesShowsValuesEffortMoralCreaturesStandardsGladPreservesDullImpressedConservationWormsOrnamentsMoral ValuesToadsPandasSolicitude
Book:An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas
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“Some beliefs may be subject to such instant, brutal and unambiguous rejection. For example: no left-coiling periwinkle has ever been found among millions of snails examined. If I happen to find one during my walk on Nobska beach tomorrow morning, a century of well nurtured negative evidence will collapse in an instant.”

IfsWellsMayHappensScienceFoundBeliefLeftWalksMorningMillionsSubjectsCenturyExampleTomorrowEvidenceNegativeBeachInstantRejectionCollapseBrutalSnailTomorrow MorningPeriwinkle
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Results rarely specify their causes unambiguously. If we have no direct evidence of fossils or human chronicles, if we are forced to infer a process only from its modern results, then we are usually stymied or reduced to speculation about probabilities. For many roads lead to almost any Rome.”

IfsHumansCausesProcessResultsModernEvidenceDirectRomeProbabilitySpeculationFossilsChronicles
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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