Best evolution & selection Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

“Natural selection deals ruthlessly with any population, bird or beaver, which fails to solve the problems of its environment with all those resources, learned or unlearned, which may be at its disposal.”

May Problem Natural Deals Environment Failing Evolution Bird Resources Population Solve Selection Natural Selection Beavers

Book:THE TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE

Source: THE TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE

“What could not be denied was that in vast segments of the animal world natural selection of the most qualified individuals took place not by competition for females but by competition for space.”

World Individual Natural Space Animal Evolution Female Competition Denied Selection Qualified Natural Selection Animal World

Book:AFRICAN GENISIS

Source: AFRICAN GENISIS

“anyone who writes about "Darwin's theory of evolutionin the singular, without segregating the theories of gradual evolution, common descent, speciation, and the mechanism of natural selection, will be quite unable to discuss the subject competently.”

Writing Natural Common Society Subjects Theory Evolution Mechanism Selection Natural Selection Descent Speciation

Author:Ernst Mayr

“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.”

“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.”

Source: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

“Human social institutions can effect the course of human evolution. Just as climate, food supply, predators, and other natural forces of selection have molded our nature, so too can our culture.”

Humans Culture Courses Force Social Natural Effects Evolution Institutions Climate Selection Predator Human Evolution Social Institutions Food Supply

Book:The expanding circle: ethics and sociobiology

Source: The expanding circle: ethics and sociobiology

“Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the only workable explanation that has ever been proposed for the remarkable fact of our own existence, indeed the existence of all life wherever it may turn up in the universe.”

May Facts Turns Universe Natural Existence Theory Evolution Explanation Remarkable Selection Natural Selection Theory Of Evolution

Book:The Theory of Evolution

Source: The Theory of Evolution

“As Stephen Jay Gould pointed out in Time, in no other Western country is the teaching of Evolution regarded as controversial. Throughout the world, one way or another, most Christian denominations have managed to reconcile belief in God with belief in the mechanisms of natural selection. A French or German or Scandinavian politician who called for students to entertain as a reasonable deduction from existing evidence the proposition that Earth is at most 10,000 years old would be bundled off to a mental hospital.”

“Creationists argue that natural selection is only a negative process, and therefore cannot create anything. Chopra argues that skepticism is only a negative process, and therefore does not lead to knowledge. Both are wrong for the same reasons. They ignore the generation of diversity and new ideas upon which natural selection and skepticism acts. Weeding out the unfit is critical to both - natural selection allows evolution to proceed, and skepticism allows science to advance.”

Doe Ideas Reason Religion Process Natural Generations Atheism Evolution Diversity Negative Critical Arguing Weed Skepticism New Ideas Selection Natural Selection

Author:Steven Novella

“Mr. Darwin ... has failed to hold definitely before his mind the principle that the difference of sex, whatever it may consist in, must itself be subject to natural selection and to evolution.”

Mind May Sex Natural Differences Principles Subjects Evolution Selection Natural Selection

Author:Antoinette Brown Blackwell

“Human rights are an aspect of natural law, a consequence of the way the universe works, as solid and as real as photons or the concept of pi. The idea of self- ownership is the equivalent of Pythagoras' theorem, of evolution by natural selection, of general relativity, and of quantum theory. Before humankind discovered any of these, it suffered, to varying degrees, in misery and ignorance.”

“The new advocates of ID [Intelligent Design] ask that their ideas be judged by scientific, not religious, criteria. OK, let's see how well ID stacks up as a scientific alternative to Darwinism. To gauge how well ID is doing as a platform for scientific research, I logged into the best database of the biological literature. A search for keyword ''evolution'' yielded 24,000 hits in the last decade. A search for ''intelligent design'' yielded not a single piece of research. Evolution by natural selection remains the basis of every successful biological research program.”

“You can be a thorough-going Neo-Darwinian without imagination, metaphysics, poetry, conscience, or decency. For 'Natural Selection' has no moral significance: it deals with that part of evolution which has no purpose, no intelligence, and might more appropriately be called accidental selection, or better still, Unnatural Selection, since nothing is more unnatural than an accident. If it could be proved that the whole universe had been produced by such Selection, only fools and rascals could bear to live.”

“Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation forthe existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.”

“I mean, obviously, one of the strongest arguments against evolution and selection of the fittest and progress, which is part of evolution, is the current field of the presidential candidates. We started off with Washington and Adams and Jefferson and then we had Lincoln, and now we moved ahead and look where we are now.”

Looks Mean Progress Fields Evolution Argument Moved Currents Presidential Candidates Strongest Presidency Selection Presidential Candidate

Author:William Kristol

“People are only animals, but special animals. Every animal has fought and killed to survive, even before the dinosaurs. We're the only ones that do it for fun. That's why I don't know about Darwinism. Supposedly evolution and natural selection are all about survival, but we haven't gotten smarter over the years, only more dangerous.”

People Knows Years Fun Natural Animal Special Dangerous Havens Evolution Survival Smarter Selection Dinosaurs Natural Selection Darwinism

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“In fact, books are still being published by the lunatic fringe with the same explanation. In case this book should be read by some fundamentalist searching for straws to prop up his prejudices, let me state categorically that all my experience (such as it is) has led me to an unqualified acceptance of evolution by natural selection as a sufficient explanation for what I have seen in the fossil record.”

“If we want to sum up the theory of evolution by natural selection in two words, which have great relevance for all societies and businesses, we should simply remember: diversity works.”

Ifs Want Should Two Remember Natural Theory Evolution Diversity Selection Relevance Natural Selection Theory Of Evolution

Book:The 80/20 Principle and 92 Other Powerful Laws of Nature: The Science of Success

Source: The 80/20 Principle and 92 Other Powerful Laws of Nature: The Science of Success

“Memetics provides a new approach to the evolution of language in which we apply Darwinian thinking to two replicators, not one. On this theory, memetic selection, as well as genetic selection, does the work of creating language.”

Thinking Wells Doe Two Language Theory Evolution Approach Creating Selection New Approach Evolution Of Language

Book:The Meme Machine

Source: The Meme Machine

“If... deceit is fundamental to animal communication, then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to betray - by the subtle signs of self-knowledge - the deception being practiced.' Thus, 'the conventional view that natural selection favors nervous systems which produce ever more accurate images of the world must be a very naive view of mental evolution.”

“The man that created the theory of evolution by natural selection was thrown out by his Dad because he wanted him to be a doctor. GAWD, parents haven't changed much.”

Men Wanted Parent Natural Havens Changed He Man Theory Evolution Dad Doctors Thrown Selection Natural Selection Theory Of Evolution

Author:Charles Darwin

“Natural Selection is not Evolution. Yet, ever since the two words have been in common use, the theory of Natural Selection has been employed as a convenient abbreviation for the theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection, put forward by Darwin and Wallace. This has had the unfortunate consequence that the theory of Natural Selection itself has scarcely ever, if ever, received separate consideration.”

Ifs Mean Has Beens Two Use Natural Common Theory Evolution Consequence Consideration Unfortunate Employed Selection Convenient Natural Selection Theory Of Evolution Abbreviations

Author:Ronald Fisher

“Evolution by natural selection is not an idle hypothesis. The genetic variation on which selection acts is well understood in principle all the way down to the molecular level.”

Way Wells Natural Levels Principles Evolution Understood Idle Hypothesis Selection Variation Natural Selection

Author:E. O. Wilson

“The fact that natural selection and evolution crafted essentially carbon and water into a mechanism that can think and be conscious means there's nothing in physics that says you cannot do that to a greater degree.”

Thinking Mean Facts Water Natural Greater Evolution Degrees Conscious Physics Mechanism Carbon Selection Natural Selection

Author:Neill Blomkamp

“They say, you know, about evolution, it surely happened because their fossil record shows that. Look, my body and your body are miracles of design. Scientists are pretending they have the answer as how we got this way when natural selection couldn't possibly have produced such machines.”

Knows Way Looks Shows Body Natural Answers Records Happened Design Evolution Machines Scientist Miracle Your Body Pretending Selection Fossils Natural Selection

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“Our own species evolved under the influence of group selection, as Darwin emphasized when he discussed the evolution of altruism.”

Groups Influence Evolution Species Altruism Selection

Author:Elliott Sober

“Group selection and individual selection are just two of the selection processes that have played important roles in evolution. There also is selection within individual organisms (intragenomic conflict), and selection among multi-species communities (an idea that now is getting attention in work on the human microbiome). All four of these levels of selection find a place in multi-level selection theory.”

Humans Two Important Ideas Individual Process Community Levels Attention Roles Four Groups Theory Evolution Conflict Species Organisms Selection

Author:Elliott Sober

“Another way to test hypotheses about adaptation is to consider trait variation across a group of species instead of focusing on the trait of a single species. Rather than seeking to explain why polar bears have fur of a certain thickness, one tries to explain why bears in colder climates have thicker fur than bears in warmer climates. The former problem is hard to solve, since it is hard to say exactly what fur thickness polar bears should have if natural selection guided the evolution of that trait.”

“Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.”

Mind Humans Courses Natural Religious Views Theory Evolution Traditional Human Mind Selection Reconciliation Natural Selection Theory Of Evolution Religious Views

Author:E. O. Wilson

“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

“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.”

May Facts Earth Religion Given Natural Atheism Theory Evolution Findings Regard Threat Chosen Certainty Flats Broads Mechanism Selection Natural Selection Scientific Facts

Author:Victor J. Stenger

“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 advances, not by a priori design, but by the selection of what works best out of whatever choices offer. We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.”

Science Choices Design Products Evolution Offers Editing Selection Authorship

Author:George Wald

“Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection, although human vanity cherishes the absurd notion that our species is the final goal of evolution.”

Source: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design

“Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.”

Facts Faces Science Culture Natural Evolution Species Determined Libertarian Historian Selection Natural Selection

Book:On aggression

Source: On aggression

“I am quite sure that our views on evolution would be very different had biologists studied genetics and natural selection before and not after most of them were convinced that evolution had occurred.”

Different Would Be Science Natural Views Evolution Convinced Selection Genetics Natural Selection Biologist

Author:John B. S. Haldane

“In the process of natural selection, then, any device that can insert a higher proportion of certain genes into subsequent generations will come to characterize the species.”

Science Certain Process Natural Generations Evolution Higher Species Proportion Devices Genes Selection Natural Selection Insert

Author:E. O. Wilson

“It is natural selection that gives direction to changes, orients chance, and slowly, progressively produces more complex structures, new organs, and new species. Novelties come from previously unseen association of old material. To create is to recombine.”

Giving Science Natural Chance Produce Materials Evolution Structure Species Complexes Association Organs Unseen Selection Novelty Natural Selection

Book:Travaux scientifiques de François Jacob

Source: Travaux scientifiques de François Jacob

“This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection and would be left a fluctuating element.”

Would Be Science Left Natural Evolution Elements Survival Destruction Affected Preservation Selection Variation Natural Selection Survival Of The Fittest

Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Source: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

“The essence of Darwinism lies in its claim that natural selection creates the fit. Variation is ubiquitous and random in direction. It supplies raw material only. Natural selection directs the course of evolutionary change.”

Lying Courses Natural Materials Evolution Fit Essence Claims Selection Variation Supplies Natural Selection Raw Materials Darwinism

Book:Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History

Source: Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History

“Opponents say natural selection is not a theory supported by observation or experiment; that it is not based on fact; and that it cannot be proved. Well, no, you cannot prove the theory to people who won't believe in it any more than you can prove that the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. However, we know the battle happened then, just as we know the course of evolution on earth unambiguously shows that Darwin was right.”

People Knows Believe Wells Facts Shows Earth Courses Natural Happened Theory Evolution Battle Prove Experiments Observation Opponents Selection Natural Selection

Author:David Attenborough

“In fact, nothing in science as a whole has been more firmly established by interwoven factual information, or more illuminating than the universal occurrence of biological evolution. Further, few natural processes have been more convincingly explained than evolution by the theory of natural selection, or as it has been popularly called, Darwinism.”

Has Beens Whole Facts Religion Process Natural Atheism Information Theory Evolution Universal Selection Natural Selection Factual Darwinism Illuminating Biological Evolution

Author:E. O. Wilson

“We are moving from unconscious evolution through natural selection to conscious evolution by choice.”

Moving Choices Natural Evolution Conscious Unconscious Selection Natural Selection

Author:Barbara Marx Hubbard

“Let me lay my cards on the table. If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of even Newton or Einstein and everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law. It is not just a wonderful idea. It is a dangerous idea.”

“Today Charles Darwin is best known for establishing the fact of evolution and for recognizing the major role of natural selection in driving it.”

Facts Today Natural Known Roles Evolution Majors Driving Recognizing Selection Natural Selection

Author:Jared Diamond

“Never say, and never take seriously anyone who says, 'I cannot believe that so-and-so could have evolved by gradual selection.' I have dubbed this kind of fallacy 'the Argument from Personal Incredulity.' Time and again, it has proven the prelude to an intellectual banana-skin experience.”

Believe Kind Evolution Intellectual Argument Skins Proven Selection Bananas Fallacy Prelude Incredulity

Author:Richard Dawkins

“All scientists agree that evolution has occurred-that all life comes from a common ancestry, that there has been extinction, and that new taxa, new biological groups, have arisen. The question is, is natural selection enough to explain evolution? Is it the driver of evolution?”

Has Beens Enough Natural Common Groups Evolution Scientist Agree Drivers Selection Extinction Natural Selection Ancestry Biological Evolution

Author:Lynn Margulis

“In the meantime, the educated public continues to believe that Darwin has provided all the relevant answers by the magic formula of random mutations plus natural selection -quite unaware of the fact that random mutations turned out to be irrelevant and natural selection tautology.”

Believe Facts Natural Answers Knowledge Magic Evolution Educated Plus Formulas Relevant Irrelevant Selection Natural Selection Creationism Mutation Tautology

Author:Arthur Koestler

“One may well find oneself beginning to doubt whether all this could conceivably be the product of an enormous lottery presided over by natural selection, blindly picking the rare winners from among numbers drawn at utter random...nevertheless although the miracle of life stands "explained" it does not strike us as any less miraculous. As Francois Mauriac wrote, What this professor says is far more incredible than what we poor Christians believe.”

Evolution Quotes

Related topics

Evolution Quotes