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Evolution Quotes

Browse 3937 quotes about Evolution.

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Evolution Quotes

“It turns out that information leaks between universes at the quantum level. We think it accounts for all kinds of phenomena, from what drives evolution to strange insights and mystical experiences through the ages. The machine was built as an attempt to investigate and amplify them.”

ThinkingKindAgeTurnsUniverseLevelsInformationStrangeEvolutionBuiltMachinesAccountsInsightAll KindsQuantumMysticalLeaksAmplifyMystical Experiences
Book:Paths to Otherwhere
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“Society never progresses because the majority one day wakes up and says, “Let’s do things differently.” The majority didn’t wake up and say, “Oh, let’s just free the slaves.” ... Society always progressed because a relatively small group of people — usually considered outrageous radicals by the status quo of their time — had a better idea and articulated another way. That’s simply how evolution works; it’s the mutation — the member of the species who does things differently - that points the way to the future because they’re better adapted for survival.”

PeopleWayDoeIdeasProgressGroupsEvolutionOne DayMembersSurvivalWake UpMajoritySlaveSpeciesRadicalWorking ItStatus QuoAnother WayOutrageousAdaptedSmall GroupsMutation
Author:Marianne Williamson
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“Today we know not only that there is a terrible amount of disorder in the heavens - great catastrophes or conflagrations occur frequently - but evolution gives us a perfectly natural explanation of such order as there is. No distinguished astronomer now traces "the finger of God" in the heavens; and astronomers ought to know best.”

KnowsGivingTodayOrderHeavenNaturalAtheismOughtEvolutionAmountTerribleFingersExplanationDisorderCatastropheDistinguishedAstronomersPerfectly Natural
Book:The Story of Religious Controversy
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“We know from astronomy that the universe had a beginning, from physics that the future is both open and unpredictable, from geology and paleontology that the whole of life has been a process of change and transformation. From biology we know that our tissues are not impenetrable reservoirs of vital magic, but a stunning matrix of complex wonders, ultimately explicable in terms of biochemistry and molecular biology. With such knowledge we can see, perhaps for the first time, why a Creator would have allowed our species to be fashioned by the process of evolution.”

KnowsFirstsHas BeensWholeUniverseProcessTermWonderMagicEvolutionFirst TimeTransformationSpeciesComplexesCreatorPhysicsAstronomyBiologyUnpredictableTissuesGeologyStunningReservoirsBiochemistryPaleontologyMolecular BiologyProcess Of Change
Author:Kenneth R. Miller
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“Life's Solution builds a forceful case for the predictability of evolutionary outcomes, not in terms of genetic details but rather their broad phenotypic manifestations. The case rests on a remarkable compilation of examples of convergent evolution, in which two or more lineages have independently evolved similar structures and functions.”

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Author:Simon Conway Morris
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“Although humans have existed on this planet for perhaps 2 million years, the rapid climb to modern civilization within the last 200 years was possible due to the fact that the growth of scientific knowledge is exponential; that is, its rate of expansion is proportional to how much is already known. The more we know, the faster we can know more. For example, we have amassed more knowledge since World War II than all the knowledge amassed in our 2-million-year evolution on this planet. In fact, the amount of knowledge that our scientists gain doubles approximately every 10 to 20 years.”

KnowsWorldYearsHumansWarFactsLastsGrowthKnownMillionsModernExamplePlanetsEvolutionAmountCivilizationGainsScientistRateDuesFasterWar Of The WorldsClimbsWorld War IiWorld War IExpansionRapidsScientific KnowledgeMore KnowledgeModern Civilization
Author:Michio Kaku
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“The most widely discussed formulation of [the One World model] was the "end of history" thesis advanced by Francis Fukuyama. "We may be witnessing," Fukuyama argued, "the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." The future will be devoted not to great exhilarating struggles over ideas but rather to resolving mundane economic and technical problems. And, he concluded rather sadly, it will all be rather boring.”

WorldHumansMayIdeasEndsProblemGovernmentFormStruggleDemocracyEconomicMankindEvolutionModelsWesternFinalsBoringDevotedMundaneIdeologicalExhilaratingThesisLiberal Democracy
Author:Samuel P. Huntington
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“Reincarnation, at least as I conceive it, does not nullify what we know about evolution and genetics. It suggests, however, that there may be two streams of evolution -- the biological one and a personal one -- and that during terrestrial lives these streams may interact.”

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Book:Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, rev. ed.
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“If the positive innovations connect exponentially before the massive breakdowns reinforce one another, the system can re-pattern itself to a higher order of consciousness and freedom without the predicted economic, environmental, and social collapse...If the system could go either way, a slight intervention to assist the convergence of the positive can tip the scales of evolution in favor of the enhancement of life on Earth.”

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Author:Barbara Marx Hubbard
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“In the United States, where it has become almost impossible to use "liberal" in the sense in which I have used it, the term "libertarian" has been used instead. It may be the answer; but for my part I find it singularly unattractive. For my taste it carries too much the flavor of a manufactured term and of a substitute. What I should want is a word which describes the party of life, the party that favors free growth and spontaneous evolution. But I have racked my brain unsuccessfully to find a descriptive term which commends itself.”

WantShouldMayHas BeensStatesUseUsedPoliticsGrowthTermAnswersUnitedPartyBrainUnited StatesToo MuchImpossibleEvolutionTasteLibertarianFavorsCarrieSubstitutesSpontaneousFlavorUnattractive
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“Brambles, in particular, protect and nourish young fruit trees, and on farms bramble clumps (blackberry or one of its related cultivars) can be used to exclude deer and cattle from newly set trees. As the trees (apple, quince, plum, citrus, fig) age, and the brambles are shaded out, hoofed animals come to eat fallen fruit, and the mature trees (7 plus years old) are sufficiently hardy to withstand browsing. Our forest ancestors may well have followed some such sequences for orchard evolution, assisted by indigenous birds and mammals.”

YearsWellsMayAgeYoungUsedAnimalTreeParticularEvolutionProtectBirdFruitForestsFallenRelatedApplesPlusMatureFarmsAncestorSequenceIndigenousDeerCattleHardyMammalsOrchardFigsPlumsBlackberriesFruit TreesBrowsingCitrusQuince
Author:Bill Mollison
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“A high place of honor, although doubtless one to be obtained only after enduring the pangs of a prolonged crucifixion, awaits that philosophical biologist, or that philosopher sufficiently acquainted with scientific biology, who subjects the modern doctrine of evolution to a thoroughly critical analysis, with a view to detect and to estimate its metaphysical assumptions.”

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Author:George Trumbull Ladd
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“If we want to postulate a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world, either instantaneously or by guiding evolution, that deity must have been vastly complex in the first place. The creationist, whether a naive Bible-thumper or an educated bishop, simply postulates an already existing being of prodigious intelligence and complexity. If we are going to allow ourselves the luxury of postulating organized complexity without offering an explanation, we might as well make a job of it and simply postulate the existence of life as we know it!”

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Author:Richard Dawkins
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“However much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their scientific and philosophical points, they would be helpless and a laughing-stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for - of even against - evolution, march in the army of the night, their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason.”

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Author:Isaac Asimov
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