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Evolution Quotes

Browse 3937 quotes about Evolution.

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Evolution Quotes

“For the whole consequence of evolution from blind impulse through conscious will to self conscious knowledge, seems still somehow to correspond to a continued result of births, rebirths and new births, which reach from the birth of the child from the mother, beyond the birth of the individual from the mass, to the birth of the creative work from the individual and finally to the birth of knowledge from the work.”

ChildrenStillsSelfWholeSeemsMotherIndividualResultsCreativeEvolutionBirthMassConsciousConsequenceBlindImpulseRebirthSelf ConsciousCreative Work
Book:journal
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“We are inescapably the result of a long heritage of learning, adaptation, mutation and evolution, the product of a history which predates our birth as a biological species and stretches back over many thousand millennia... Going further back, we share a common ancestry with our fellow primates; and going still further back, we share a common ancestry with all other living creatures and plants down to the simplest microbe. The further back we go, the greater the difference from external appearances and behavior patterns which we observe today.”

LongStillsTodayDifferencesResultsCommonGreaterShareProductsEvolutionBirthThousandCreaturesBehaviorFellowsPlantSpeciesPatternsAppearanceHeritageSimplestAdaptationAncestryLiving CreaturesPrimatesMutationMicrobesBehavior PatternsExternal Appearance
Author:Fred Hoyle
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“Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a bird capable, say, of catching insects in mid-air, with the result that birds of similar habitats tend to have very similar anatomies, whatever their ancestry. For example, American vultures look and behave much like Old World vultures, but biologists have come to realize that the former are related to storks, the latter to hawks, and that their resemblances result from their common lifestyle.”

WorldWayLooksDifficultRealizingResultsCommonAirExampleDesignFieldsEvolutionCapableBirdLifestyleFlightFormerBehaveRelatedLatterSevereInsectsCatchingConstraintsAncestryAnatomyResemblanceHawksBiologistHabitatOld WorldVultureTaxonomyStorks
Author:Jared Diamond
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“This is a living planet. Look around. Mars, Venus, Jupiter. Look beyond our solar system. Where else is there a place that works, that is just right for the likes of us? It has not happened just instantly. It is vulnerable to our actions. But it's the result of four and a half billion years of evolution, of change over time. And it changes every day, all the time. It would be in our interest to try to maintain a certain level of stability that has enabled us to prosper, to not wreck the very systems that give us life.”

GivingTryingYearsLooksWould BeActionCertainInterestLevelsResultsHalfFourHappenedPlanetsEvolutionBillionsLikesVulnerableStabilityMarsOur ActionsWrecksVenusSolar SystemJupiterChanges Over Time
Author:Sylvia Earle
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“I was brought up to believe in free will. Although I came to doubt all revelation, I can never accept the idea that the Universe is a physical or chemical accident, a result of blind evolution. Even though I learned to recognize the lies, the clichés and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day.”

ThinkingMindBelieveHumansStillsI CanIdeasMightLyingUniverseResultsAcceptingDoubtEvolutionBlindAccidentsRevelationsFree WillHuman MindChemicalsIdolatry
Book:Aspects of I.B. Singer
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“I'll admit that the discovery of evolution is humbling, but it is also empowering. It transforms our relationship to the life around us. Instead of being outsiders watching the natural world go by, we are insiders. We are part of the process; we are the exquisite result of billions of years of natural research and development.”

WorldYearsProcessNaturalResultsDevelopmentEvolutionResearchDiscoveryBillionsEmpoweringOur RelationshipOutsidersNatural WorldExquisiteHumblingInsidersResearch And Development
Book:Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation
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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.”

IfsMenMindMaySocialGrowsNaturalDifferencesResultsNumbersEffortAttentionKnowledgeIssuesBuildingTheoryEvolutionScientistOne ManProgressiveAdaptationSocial ScienceNatural ScienceClassificationModificationKnowledge And ExperienceAdaptiveIncreasing Knowledge
Author:Lawrence Joseph Henderson
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“How shall we define occultism? The word is derived from the Latin occultus, hidden; so that it is the study of the hidden laws of nature. Since all the great laws of nature are in fact working in the invisible world far more than in the visible, occultism involves the acceptance of a much wider view of nature than that which is ordinarily taken. The occultist, then, is a man who studies all the laws of nature that he can reach or of which he can hear, and as a result of his study he identifies himself with these laws and devotes his life to the service of evolution.”

MenWorldFactsLawResultsViewsStudyTakenAcceptanceEvolutionInvisibleVisibleLatinLaws Of Nature
Author:Charles Webster Leadbeater
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“Therefore, a grotesque account of a period some thousands of years ago is taken seriously though it be built by piling special assumptions on special assumptions, ad hoc hypothesis [invented for a purpose] on ad hoc hypothesis, and tearing apart the fabric of science whenever it appears convenient. The result is a fantasia which is neither history nor science.”

YearsPurposeResultsTakenSpecialEvolutionPeriodsBuiltYears AgoAccountsAssumptionAdsFabricHypothesisConvenientGrotesqueFantasiaTearing Apart
Author:James Bryant Conant
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“To suppose universal laws of nature capable of being apprehended by the mind and yet having no reason for their special forms, but standing inexplicable and irrational, is hardly a justifiable position. Uniformities are precisely the sort of facts that need to be accounted for. Law is par excellence the thing that wants a reason. Now the only possible way of accounting for the laws of nature, and for uniformity in general, is to suppose them results of evolution.”

WayWantNeedsMindReasonFactsFormLawResultsSpecialPositionEvolutionCapableStandingUniversalExcellenceNo ReasonIrrationalLaws Of NatureAccountingInexplicableUniformityUniversal Laws
Author:Charles Sanders Peirce
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“With the passing of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the colour of blood and in the salt of tears, and, as if that were not enough, we made our eyes into a kind of mirror turned inwards, with the result that they often show without reserve what we are verbally trying to deny.”

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Author:Jose Saramago
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“Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It's something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution.”

BelieveDoeFeelingsHappensHappinessResultsBusinessEvolutionContraryFulfilledDifferentiation
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“There is not enough evidence, consistent evidence to make it as fact, and I say that because for theory to become a fact, it needs to consistently have the same results after it goes through a series of tests. The tests that they put- that they use to support evolution do not have consistent results. Now too many people are blindly accepting evolution as fact. But when you get down to the hard evidence, it's merely a theory.”

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Author:Christine O'Donnell
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“I have devoted my whole life to the study of Nature, and yet a single sentence may express all that I have done. I have shown that there is a correspondence between the succession of Fishes in geological times and the different stages of their growth in the egg,-this is all. It chanced to be a result that was found to apply to other groups and has led to other conclusions of a like nature.”

MayDifferentDoneWholeScienceFoundGrowthNatureResultsStudyGroupsStageEvolutionFishesSentencesWhole LifeConclusionEggsDevotedSuccessionGeologyCorrespondenceSingle SentenceGeological Time
Book:Agassiz on Evolution: Methods of study in natural history
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“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
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“Workers must root out the idea that by keeping the results of their labors to themselves a fortune will be assured to them. Patent fees are so much wasted money. The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1,000 miles or so. Like everything else it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others. Excellence of design and workmanship will always defy competition.”

ShouldFirstsMadeIdeasScienceBornResultsDesignEvolutionFutureCapableLaborRootsMachinesDifficultyCompetitionFortuneExcellenceWorkersAidsMilesFlyingFlightDescriptionAssuredFeesPatentsWorkmanshipFlying Machines
Author:Lawrence Hargrave
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“The proof given by Wright, that non-adaptive differentiation will occur in small populations owing to "drift," or the chance fixation of some new mutation or recombination, is one of the most important results of mathematical analysis applied to the facts of neo-mendelism. It gives accident as well as adaptation a place in evolution, and at one stroke explains many facts which puzzled earlier selectionists, notably the much greater degree of divergence shown by island than mainland forms, by forms in isolated lakes than in continuous river-systems.”

GivingWellsImportantFactsFormScienceGivenChanceResultsGreaterEvolutionDegreesRiversMathematicsPopulationAccidentsProofMathematicalAnalysisIslandsLakesIsolatedStrokesAdaptationOwingPuzzledMutationDifferentiationFixationAdaptiveDivergenceMathematical Analysis
Author:Julian Huxley
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“New knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.”

Has BeensTodayReligionResultsHalfAtheismCenturyFieldsTheoryEvolutionDiscoveryArgumentSeriesVariousFollowingAcceptedFavorsSignificantRecognitionRemarkableHypothesisPublicationResearchersTheory Of EvolutionConvergenceNew KnowledgeHalf A Century
Author:Pope John Paul II
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“Evolution is a blind giant who rolls a snowball down a hill. The ball is made of flakes-circumstances. They contribute to the mass without knowing it. They adhere without intention, and without foreseeing what is to result. When they see the result they marvel at the monster ball and wonder how the contriving of it came to be originally thought out and planned. Whereas there was no such planning, there was only a law: the ball once started, all the circumstances that happened to lie in its path would help to build it, in spite of themselves.”

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Author:Mark Twain
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“I find that because of modern technological evolution and our global economy, and as a result of the great increase in population, our world has greatly changed: it has become much smaller. However, our perceptions have not evolved at the same pace; we continue to cling to old national demarcations and the old feelings of 'us' and 'them'.”

WorldFeelingsResultsEconomyModernChangedEvolutionPerceptionIncreasePopulationOur WorldPaceTechnologicalGlobal EconomyOld Feelings
Book:An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life
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“Patanjali, declares that the true secret of evolution is the manifestation of the perfection which is already in every being; that this perfection has been barred and the infinite tide behind is struggling to express itself. These struggles and competitions are but the results of our ignorance, because we do not know the proper way to unlock the gate and let the water in. This infinite tide behind must express itself; it is the cause of all manifestation.”

KnowsWayHas BeensCausesWaterResultsSecretBehindsStruggleIgnoranceEvolutionPerfectionInfiniteCompetitionManifestationGatesTides
Book:Raja Yoga (Annotated Edition)
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“Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities... If one attempts to assign to religion its place in man's evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity.”

IfsMenWorldWayMeanSeemsIndividualWishResultsChildhoodEvolutionPsychologicalMaturityLastingCivilizedParallelsAcquisitionNeurosisSensory
Author:Sigmund Freud
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“Asian Homo erectus died without issue and does not enter our immediate ancestry (for we evolved from African populations); Neanderthal people were collateral cousins, perhaps already living in Europe while we emerged in Africa... In other words, we are an improbable and fragile entity, fortunately successful after precarious beginnings as a small population in Africa, not the predictable end result of a global tendency. We are a thing, an item of history, not an embodiment of general principles.”

PeopleDoeEndsScienceResultsPrinciplesIssuesSuccessfulEvolutionEuropeDiedPopulationTendenciesFragileEntityCousinItemsAsianPredictableAncestryEmbodimentImprobablePrecariousEnd ResultsCollateralNeanderthals
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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