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Quote by E. O. Wilson

“Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.”

Quote by E. O. Wilson

Author

E. O. Wilson is a renowned American biologist, born on June 10, 1929. He has made significant contributions to the fields of entomology, sociobiology, and anthropology. Best known for his research on ants, he is often referred to as the 'father of ants'. His book 'Sociobiology: The New Science' had a profound impact on both biology and the social sciences. more

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“Real biologists who actually do the research will tell you that they almost never find a phenomenon, no matter how odd or irrelevant it looks when they first see it, that doesn't prove to serve a function. The outcome itself may be due to small accidents of evolution.”

Firsts Looks May Real Matter Evolution Prove Research Function Dues Accidents Odd Outcomes Phenomenon Irrelevant Biologist

Author:E. O. Wilson

“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.”

Choices Growth Accepting Economic Behavior Ethics Environmental Population Economic Growth

Book:Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Source: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

“In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time.”

Two Theory Mathematician Altruism Colleagues Selection Harvard

Author:E. O. Wilson

“In some ways, I had a traditional 'old South' upbringing, meaning that I spent some time in a military school, and acquired an inoculum of the military ethic that is still with me today: honor, duty, loyalty.”

Way Stills Today School Military Duty Honor Ethics South Loyalty Traditional Upbringing Military School

Author:E. O. Wilson

“When you get into the whole field of exploring, probably 90 percent of the kinds of organisms, plants, animals and especially microorganisms and tiny invertebrate animals are unknown. Then you realize that we live on a relatively unexplored plan.”

Kind Whole Realizing Animal Plans Fields Percent Plant Tiny Organisms Exploring Unexplored Microorganisms Invertebrates

Author:E. O. Wilson

“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.”

Feels Humans Has Beens Important Able Culture Roles Stage Activity Dancing Musical Ritual Could Have Been

Author:E. O. Wilson

“People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will find a way to keep ancestral spirits alive.”

People Way Needs Form Spirit Purpose Alive Sacred Narrative

Author:E. O. Wilson

“Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength.”

Belief Religious Groups Essentials Weakness Tribes Competing Selection Religious Belief

Author:E. O. Wilson

“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.”

World Years Literature Views Known Evolution University Transformed Secular Alabama Freshman Freshman Year

Author:E. O. Wilson

“We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there.”

Needs Earth Animal Clear Tree Percent Rain Plant Species Surface Forests Tropical

Author:E. O. Wilson