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Evolution Quotes

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Evolution Quotes

“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.”

Men Giving May Stills Facts Feelings Destiny Pride Evolution Higher Scales Summit Risen Exertion Origin Of Man

Book:The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality

Source: The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality

“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.”

“In a sense, evolution adheres to the classic twelve-step program: it takes things one day at a time. It does not strive for perfection; it does not strive at all. There is no progress, no plans, no scala natura, or scale of nature, that ranks organisms from lowly to superior, primitive to advanced.”

Doe Steps Progress Plans Evolution One Day Program Perfection Strive Scales Superiors Classic Twelve Primitive Organisms One Day At A Time

Author:Natalie

“...Which brings me to the Hubble Space Telescope's newest images. If it's wonder that you're looking for, and mystery, don't just scan the photographs. Stop and think about them. Try to imagine the scale. The Earth is just a speck of dust on one distant whirling tentacle of the Milky Way galaxy, which contains billions of stars. A 'collision' of galaxies seems unimaginably large - and yet it is something scientists long ago imagined... The imaginings of pseudoscience are feeble by comparison.”

“We are at a point in human evolution when human solidarity on a global scale is absolutely vital for the survival of the human species. That means understanding that ... we are all co-inhabitants of this planet.”

Humans Mean Understanding Planets Evolution Survival Species Scales Solidarity Human Species Human Evolution

Author:Petra Kelly

“Turtles hate heights. They don't even like being a few feet off the ground. It's the main reason they have resisted evolution for so long-fear of heights. Turtle thinking goes thus: Sure, first our scales turn into feathers and the next thing you know we're flying and chirping and perching on trees. We've seen it happen. Thanks, but we're staying right here in the mud where we belong. You're not going to see us flying full-tilt boogie into a sliding glass door.”

Thinking Knows Firsts Long Reason Happens Hate Turns Next Doors Tree Feet Evolution Glasses Flying Scales Thanks Height Staying Mud Feathers Turtles Tilt Boogie Feet Off The Ground

Author:Christopher Moore

“The evolution was always to greater scale and speed. Other countries did that here and there - GB in textiles, Germany in steel - but we went in that direction almost across the board.”

Country Greater Evolution Speed Scales Boards Germany Other Countries Steel Here And There Textiles

Author:Charles R. Morris

“You know, Darwin said through natural selection things go gradually, and he was talking about pigeon's evolution or horses evolving, getting faster. But in fact if you look at evolution on a bigger scale, cosmic evolution and you look at culture evolution you see it jumps, it goes through phase changes, and that's very exciting.”

Ifs Knows Looks Said Facts Culture Natural Talking Evolution Bigger Exciting Horse Scales Faster Evolve Cosmic Phases Selection Natural Selection Pigeons

Author:Charles Jencks

“But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.”

Source: On the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle

“Speciation does not necessarily promote evolutionary change; rather, speciation 'gathers in' and guards evolutionary change by locking and stabilization for sufficient geological time within a Darwinian individual of the appropriate scale. If a change in a local population does not gain such protection, it becomes-to borrow Dawkins's metaphor at a macroevolutionary scale-a transient duststorm in the desert of time, a passing cloud without borders, integrity, or even the capacity to act as a unit of selection, in the panorama of life's phylogeny.”

Source: Punctuated Equilibrium

“Evolution on the large scale unfolds, like much of human history, as a succession of dynasties.”

Humans Science History Evolution Scales Human History Succession Large Scale Dynasty

Author:Edmund Beecher Wilson

“On the whole, at least in the author's experience, the preparation of species-specific antiserum fractions and the differentiation of closely related species with precipitin sera for serum proteins does not succeed so regularly as with agglutinins and lysins for blood cells. This may be due to the fact that in the evolutional scale the proteins undergo continuous variations whereas cell antigens are subject to sudden changes not linked by intermediary stages.”

“The idea of spontaneous generation of life in its present form is therefore highly improbable even to the scale of the billions of years during which prebotic evolution occurred.”

Years Ideas Form Generations Evolution Billions Scales Spontaneous Improbable

Author:Ilya Prigogine

“The fundamental religious objection to the theory of evolution is not scientific but moral. [Fundamentalists believe that] evolutionary theory must be opposed because it leads to rampant immorality, on both the personal and political scales. The basic cause of this immorality is atheism.”

Believe Political Causes Religious Moral Atheism Theory Evolution Fundamentals Scales Objections Immorality Theory Of Evolution

Author:Elizabeth S. Anderson

“Since Serengeti-scale savanna scenes are only one or two million years old, our earliest after-the-apes ancestors didn't move into this scene so much as they evolved with it, as the slower climate changes and uplift produced more grass and less forest.”

Years Two Moving Millions Evolution Scene Climate Climate Change Scales Forests Uplifting Grass Ancestor Apes Savanna

Book:A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change

Source: A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change