“A complete theory of evolution must acknowledge a balance between "external" forces of environment imposing selection for local adaptation and "internal" forces representing constraints of inheritance and development. Vavilov placed too much emphasis on internal constraints and downgraded the power of selection. But Western Darwinians have erred equally in practically ignoring (while acknowledging in theory) the limits placed on selection by structure and development what Vavilov and the older biologists would have called "laws of form.” FormLawForceEnvironmentToo MuchTheoryDevelopmentEvolutionBalanceLimitsStructureWesternLocalsAcknowledgeInternalsEmphasisSelectionAdaptationInheritanceConstraintsRepresentingImposingBiologistTheory Of EvolutionExternal Forces Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History Source: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History
“The constant assumption runs throughout the law that the natural and spontaneous evolutions of habit fix the limits of right and wrong.” RunningLawNaturalEvolutionHabitLimitsConstantAssumptionSpontaneous Book:The Nature of the Judicial Process Source: The Nature of the Judicial Process
“Wherever the Net arises, there arises also a rebel to resist human control...A network nurtures small failures in order that large failures don't happen as often. It is...fertile ground for learning, adaptation, and evolution...The only organization capable of unprejudiced growth, or unguided learning, is a network. All other topologies limit what can happen.” HumansHappensOrderGrowthEvolutionInternetLimitsCapableOrganizationAriseRebelFree SpeechNurtureAdaptationFertileFertile GroundTopology Author:Kevin Kelly
“We have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion. . . To continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the Spirit of the Earth to its limits.” GivingHumansEarthSpiritOrderPassionSocialCommonViolenceEvolutionAmountLimitsGiving UpCrossroadsSocial OrderHuman Evolution Author:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“There are times when one feels liberated from one’s limits and human imperfections. At such moments, we see ourselves there, in a little corner of our little planet, our eyes fixed in wonder on the cold and yet deep beauty of that which is eternal, that which is elusive. Life and death are fused together and there is no evolution, nor destination, there is only BEING.” FeelsHumansLittlesMomentsEyeTogetherWonderPlanetsColdEvolutionLimitsEternalCornersFixedLife And DeathDestinationImperfectionLiberatedElusiveHuman Imperfection Author:Albert Einstein
“Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few observations, explained by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and the series of events which preceded the birth of the human race?” MenWorldHumansScienceUniverseSpaceRaceEventsThis WorldEvolutionBirthGeniusLimitsSeriesObservationHuman RaceGloriousReasoningMechanism Author:Georges Cuvier
“To be anthropocentric is to remain unaware of the limits of human nature, the significance of biological processes underlying human behavior, and the deeper meaning of long-term genetic evolution.” HumansLongScienceProcessTermHuman NatureEvolutionLimitsBehaviorDeeperLong TermSignificanceHuman BehaviorDeeper Meaning Author:E. O. Wilson
“In every animal which has not passed the limit of its development, a more frequent and continuous use of any organ gradually strengthens, develops and enlarges that organ, and gives it a power proportional to the length of time it has been so used; while the permanent disuse of any organ imperceptibly weakens and deteriorates it, and progressively diminishes its functional capacity, until it finally disappears.” GivingHas BeensUseScienceUsedAnimalDevelopmentEvolutionLimitsCapacityDisappearPermanentLengthOrgansDiminish Author:Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
“The great age of the earth will appear greater to man when he understands the origin of living organisms and the reasons for the gradual development and improvement of their organization. This antiquity will appear even greater when he realizes the length of time and the particular conditions which were necessary to bring all the living species into existence. This is particularly true since man is the latest result and present climax of this development, the ultimate limit of which, if it is ever reached, cannot be known.” IfsMenReasonAgeEarthScienceRealizingResultsExistenceKnownGreaterConditionsParticularDevelopmentEvolutionLimitsUltimateOrganizationSpeciesImprovementLengthOrganismsAntiquityClimaxLiving Organisms Author:Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
“Whenever anything changes and quits its proper limits, this change is at once the death of that which was before.” ProgressEvolutionLimitsQuittingThings Change Author:Lucretius
“The plan of spiritual evolution is marked not only by God's will that we move ever in the direction of love, nut also by another of God's creative principles: that humanity has free will. What that means is that in any given moment, it is our choice whether we move toward love or retreat from it. What is not love is fear. But in the larger scheme of things, there is a limit past which lovelessness cannot remain. Fear is not life-giving enough to sustain itself. We can move in the direction of fear only so long before it brings us to our knees, or to our end.” GivingMeanLongSoulEndsEnoughMomentsPastSpiritualMovingHumanityChoicesGivenLove IsPrinciplesCreativePlansEvolutionLimitsGods WillKneesFree WillNutsSchemesRetreatOur ChoicesSpiritual EvolutionLovelessness Author:Marianne Williamson
“Once we see, however, that the probability of life originating at random is so utterly minuscule as to make it absurd, it becomes sensible to think that the favorable properties of physics, on which life depends, are in every respect deliberate.... It is, therefore, almost inevitable that our own measure of intelligence must reflect higher intelligence -even to the limit of God.” ThinkingDependsEvolutionHigherLimitsPropertyPhysicsAbsurdInevitableSensibleProbabilityDeliberateOrigin Of Life Author:Fred Hoyle