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Evolution Quotes

Browse 3937 quotes about Evolution.

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Evolution Quotes

“A living organism must be studied from two distinct aspects. One of these is the causal-analytic aspect which is so fruitfully applicable to ontogeny. The other is the historical descriptive aspect which is unravelling lines of phylogeny with ever-increasing precision. Each of these aspects may make suggestions concerning the possible significance of events seen under the other, but does not explain or translate them into simpler terms.”

MayDoeTwoScienceTermLinesEventsEvolutionAspectHistoricalSignificanceTranslateOrganismsSuggestionsPrecisionAnalyticsLiving Organisms
Author:Gavin de Beer
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“Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new animal, but it is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent; since a part of the embryon-animal is, or was, a part of the parent; and therefore in strict language it cannot be said to be entirely new at the time of its production; and therefore it may retain some of the habits of the parent-system. (1794)”

MaySaidLanguageParentAnimalEvolutionHabitProductionsBranchesImperfectionStrictOffspringOwing
Book:Zoonomia; or, The laws of organic life ...
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“Those who would legislate against the teaching of evolution should also legislate against gravity, electricity and the unreasonable velocity of light, and also, should introduce a clause to prevent the use of the telescope, the microscope and the spectroscope or any other instrument of precision which may in the future be invented, constructed or used for the discovery of truth.”

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Author:Luther Burbank
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“Throughout his last half-dozen books, for example, Arthur Koestler has been conducting a campaign against his own misunderstanding of Darwinism. He hopes to find some ordering force, constraining evolution to certain directions and overriding the influence of natural selection. [...] Darwinism is not the theory of capricious change that Koestler imagines. Random variation may be the raw material of change, but natural selection builds good design by rejecting most variants while accepting and accumulating the few that improve adaptation to local environments.”

MayHas BeensBookLastsCertainForceNaturalHalfAcceptingEnvironmentImagineInfluenceExampleDesignMaterialsTheoryEvolutionCampaignsLocalsDozenSelectionMisunderstandingAdaptationVariationNatural SelectionArthurRejectingRaw MaterialsConductingDarwinismGood DesignCapricious
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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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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“Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future.”

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Book:The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality
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“Evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life. It is simply a history of the process of life. With the secret cause of life evolution has nothing to do. A man, therefore, may be a materialistic evolutionist or a theistic evolutionist; that is, he may believe that the cause is some single unintelligent impersonal force, or he may believe that the cause is a wise and beneficent God.”

MenBelieveMayDoeForceCausesProcessSecretWiseEvolutionMaterialisticOrigin Of LifeUnintelligentProcess Of Life
Book:The Theology of an Evolutionist
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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.”

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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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“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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“jewels have played a colorful part in the evolution of world affairs. Because precious stones tend to inspire both admiration and greed, leaders have found convenient excuses for seeking them and have used them to impress crowds, reward friends, deprive foes, forge alliances, and justify war. Jewels may find their highest expression in the decorative arts, but they have also earned a place in the art of the possible.”

WorldMayArtWarUsedFoundLeaderInspireExpressionEvolutionHighestStonesRewardsGreedAffairCrowdsSeekingExcuseJustifyAdmirationImpressJewelsFoeConvenientAlliancesColorfulPrecious StonesWorld Affairs
Author:Madeleine Albright
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“A … difference between most system-building in the social sciences and systems of thought and classification of the natural sciences is to be seen in their evolution. In the natural sciences both theories and descriptive systems grow by adaptation to the increasing knowledge and experience of the scientists. In the social sciences, systems often issue fully formed from the mind of one man. Then they may be much discussed if they attract attention, but progressive adaptive modification as a result of the concerted efforts of great numbers of men is rare.”

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Author:Lawrence Joseph Henderson
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“No human mind may measure the blessings conferred by the game of base ball on the soldiers of the Civil War. It had its earliest evolution when soldiers, North and South, were striving to forget their foes by cultivating, through this grand game, fraternal friendships with comrades in arms.”

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Author:Albert Goodwill Spalding
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“At first the, only subconsciously apprehended, approaching confluences of complex events make themselves known intuitively within the intellectual weather. Then comes a gradually awakening consciousness of the presence of new families of differentiating-out challenging concepts of every day prominence. It is with these randomly patterning families of separate concepts that evolution is about to deal integratively. As a now specific unitary problem it may be disposed of effectively when and if that unified problem becomes "adequately stated" and thereby comprehensibly solvable.”

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Author:R. Buckminster Fuller
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“The Visitors reported by contactees, abductees, and other witnesses may, in fact, be a highly advanced amphibian or reptilian culture from an extraterrestrial world, who evolved into the dominant species on their planet millions of years ago and who have interacted in Earth's evolution as explorers, observers, caretakers, and genetic engineers.”

WorldYearsMayFactsEarthCultureMillionsPlanetsEvolutionYears AgoSpeciesWitnessEngineersDominantObserversVisitorsExplorersExtraterrestrialCaretakersAmphibians
Book:Real Aliens, Space Beings, and Creatures from Other Worlds
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“CANNOT BELIEVE BOTH GOSPEL AND EVOLUTION. I say most emphatically, you cannot believe in this theory of the origin of man, and at the same time accept the plan of salvation as set forth by the Lord our God. You must choose the one and reject the other, for they are in direct conflict and there is a gulf separating them which is so great that it cannot be bridged, no matter how much one may try to do so.”

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Book:Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and Writings
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“Stanford may be the best university in the world, but you can get all the way through here without knowing where your food came from, without being able to say where we came from, without being able to give a coherent description of why the climate is changing and why we should be concerned about it. So I started teaching a course in human evolution and the environment that's open to all Stanford students, no prerequisites.”

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Author:Paul R. Ehrlich
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“The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion . . .”

MindMayWarBloodEvolutionHeroHorrorAffectionConfusionFancyCombatUniformsAssaultFablesSkillfulPernicious
Book:The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812
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“I think we have got to start again and go right back to first principles. The argument I shall advance, surprising as it may seem coming from the author of the earlier chapters, is that, for an understanding of the evolution of modern man, we must begin by throwing out the gene as the sole basis of our ideas on evolution. If there is only one Creator who made the tiger and the lamb, the cheetah and the gazelle, what is He playing at? Is he a sadist who enjoys spectator blood sports? ... Is he manuvering to maximize David Attenborough's television ratings?”

IfsThinkingMenFirstsMayMadeIdeasSeemsSportsEnjoyUnderstandingPrinciplesBloodModernTelevisionHe ManEvolutionArgumentBasesCreatorThrowingGenesSurprisingSoleChaptersTigersSpectatorsLambsRatingModern ManCheetahsGazelles
Book:The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition
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“I wish I were younger. What inclines me now to think you may be right in regarding [evolution] as the central and radical lie in the whole web of falsehood that now governs our lives is not so much your arguments against it as the fanatical and twisted attitudes of its defenders.”

ThinkingMayWholeLife IsLyingWishAttitudeOur LivesEvolutionArgumentRadicalFalsehoodTwistedDefendersIncline
Book:Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963
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“It is important to understand that while oxytocin may be the hub of the evolution of the social brain in mammals, it is part of a very complex system. Part of what it does is act in opposition to stress hormones, and in that sense release of oxytocin feels good - as stress hormones and anxiety do not feel good.”

FeelsMayDoeImportantSocialBrainEvolutionAnxietyStressComplexesFeel GoodReleaseOppositionHormonesMammalsComplex SystemsHubOxytocin
Author:Patricia Churchland
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“Every reader of the Conversations with the God is invited to self-select, that is, to choose themselves, to be among those who commit to moving forward their own individual and personal evolution by embracing and demonstrating behaviors that serve to awaken the species to who and what human beings really are Individuations of Divinity, and how that may be made manifest in our experience.”

HumansMayMadeSelfMovingIndividualHuman BeingsEvolutionReaderConversationBehaviorSpeciesCommitMoving ForwardDivinityManifestBeing RealInvitedSelectDemonstratingIndividuationPersonal Evolution
Author:Neale Donald Walsch
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“There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible that man may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead.”

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Book:The White People and Other Stories: The Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen
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“I take leave to contradict those who say that salvation is an evolution! All that ever can be evolved out of the sinful heart of man is sin-and nothing else! Salvation is the free gift of God, by Jesus Christ, and the work of it is supernatural. It is done by the Lord Himself, and He has power to do it, however weak, no, however dead in sin, the sinner may be!”

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Book:The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 38
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“We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher answer’– but none exists”

YearsMayAgeEarthReligionAnswersMillionsGroupsAtheismEvolutionHigherCreaturesYears AgoSpeciesAtheistFishesLegsIceOddPeculiarQuartersHookAnatomyCrooksIce AgeFins
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“This last chapter .. may have given the impression that somehow man is the ultimate triumph of evolution, that all these millions of years of development have had no purpose other than to put him on earth. There is no scientific evidence whatever to support such a view and no reason to suppose that our stay here will be any more permanent than that of the dinosaur.”

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Author:David Attenborough
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“In short, evolution is as close to being a scientific fact as is possible for any theory, given that science is open - ended and no one can predict with certainty what may change in the future. The prospect that evolution by natural selection, at least as a broad mechanism, will be overthrown in the future is about as likely as the prospect of finding out some day that the Earth is really flat. Unfortunately, those who regard these scientific facts as a threat to faith have chosen to distort and misrepresent them to the public.”

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Author:Victor J. Stenger
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“Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before. Some day, I doubt not, we shall arrive at an understanding of the evolution of the aesthetic faculty; but all the understanding in the world will neither increase nor diminish the force of the intuition that this is beautiful and that is ugly.”

MenWorldMayReasonBeautifulEvilForceUnderstandingTeachDoubtEvolutionIncreaseUglyIntuitionTendenciesReason WhyGood And EvilFacultyCosmicAestheticDiminishIncompetent
Book:Collected essays
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