Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

“Unfortunately, all life on earth - the only life we know - represents, for all its current variety, the results of a single experiment , for every earthly species evolved from the common ancestry of a single origin. We desperately need a repetition of the experiment (several would be better, but let's not be greedy!) in order to make a judgement. Mars represents our first real hope for a second experiment - the sine qua non - for any proper answer for the question of questions.”

Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
Create image

Work

Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

This book delves into the lesser-known facets of Leonardo da Vinci's life and work, examining his various inventions and observations. It includes insights into his innovative thinking and the impact of his ideas on the world around him. more

Author

Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould was a renowned paleontologist, evolutionary theorist, science writer, and academic. He is known for his work in ornithology, paleontology, evolutionary theory, and speciation. Gould's writings and papers have had a profound impact on the scientific community, and he was a long-time contributor to the journal 'Nature'. more

You May Also Like

“Complex organisms cannot be construed as the sum of their genes, nor do genes alone build particular items of anatomy or behavior by themselves. Most genes influence several aspects of anatomy and behavior as they operate through complex interactions with other genes and their products, and with environmental factors both within and outside the developing organism. We fall into a deep error, not just a harmful oversimplification, when we speak of genes "for" particular items of anatomy or behavior.”

FallSpeakInfluenceParticularProductsBehaviorAspectErrorsComplexesEnvironmentalFactorsDevelopingGenesInteractionOrganismsItemsAnatomyOversimplificationInteraction With OthersEnvironmental Factors
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“As a graduate student at Columbia University, I remember the a priori derision of my distinguished stratigraphy professor toward a visiting Australian drifter [a supporter of the theory of continental drift]. Today my own students would dismiss with even more derision anyone who denied the evident truth of continental drift - a prophetic madman is at least amusing; a superannuated fuddy-duddy is merely pitiful.”

TodayRememberMy OwnStudentsTheoryUniversityProfessorsDeniedGraduatesEvidentSupporterDistinguishedAustralianAmusingVisitingMadmenPropheticColumbiaPitifulGraduate StudentsContinentalDerisionDriftersColumbia University
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“There is no gene "for" such unambiguous bits of morphology as your left kneecap or your fingernail. [...] Hundreds of genes contribute to the building of most body parts and their action is channeled through a kaleidoscopic series of environmental influences: embryonic and postnatal, internal and external. Parts are not translated genes, and selection doesn't even work directly on parts.”

BodyActionLeftBitsInfluenceBuildingSeriesEnvironmentalInternalsGenesSelectionFingernailsMorphologyEnvironmental Influences
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
Create image

“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
Create image

“The oppressive weight of disaster and tragedy in our lives does not arise from a high percentage of evil among the summed total of all acts, but from the extraordinary power of exceedingly rare incidents of depravity to inflict catastrophic damage, especially in our technological age when airplanes can become powerful bombs. (An even more evil man, armed only with a longbow, could not have wreaked such havoc at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.)”

MenDoeAgeEvilPowerfulOur LivesBattleWeightTragedyExtraordinaryDisasterAriseDamageBombsAirplaneTechnologicalPercentagesIncidentsDepravityHavocEvil Man
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“I contend that the continued racial classification of Homo sapiens represents an outmoded approach to the general problem of differentiation within a species. In other words, I reject a racial classification of humans for the same reasons that I prefer not to divide into subspecies the prodigiously variable West Indian land snails that form the subject of my own research.”

HumansReasonProblemFormMy OwnLandSubjectsApproachResearchWestSpeciesIndianRejectsDividesHomo SapiensVariablesClassificationSnailDifferentiation
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“The human brain became large by natural selection (who knows why, but presumably for good cause). Yet surely most "things" now done by our brains, and essential both to our cultures and to our very survival, are epiphenomena of the computing power of this machine, not genetically grounded Darwinian entities created specifically by natural selection for their current function.”

KnowsHumansDoneCultureCausesNaturalBrainEssentialsSurvivalMachinesFunctionCurrentsEntityGroundedSelectionNatural SelectionHuman BrainComputingGood Causes
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image