Best evolution & would-be Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“So if we look at progress, or evolution, or we look at accomplishment in our life, the key is to be continually moving on, expanding and growing, clarifying, developing and maturing. The opposite would be getting stuck, staying stuck, so there's no maturing, no developing, no accomplishing, no movement.”

Ifs Looks Would Be Action Moving Our Lives Growing Progress Movement Keys Evolution Opposites Stuck Developing Accomplishment Staying Mature Expanding Clarifying

Book:Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way

Source: Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way

“Evolution is an obstacle course not a freeway; the correct analogue for long-term success is a distant punt receiver evading legions of would-be tacklers in an oddly zigzagged path toward a goal, not a horse thundering down the flat.”

Long Would Be Courses Goal Term Path Evolution Horse Obstacles Long Term Flats Receiver Legion Freeways Analogue Long Term Success

Book:Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history

Source: Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history

“If evolution was worth its salt, it should've evolved something better than 'survival of the fittest.' I think a better idea would be 'survival of the wittiest.' At least, that way, creatures that didn't survive could've died laughing.”

Ifs Thinking Way Should Ideas Would Be Laughing Evolution Creatures Survival Died Salt Worth It Something Better Survival Of The Fittest Wittiest

Author:Lily Tomlin

“The evolution of life, and the evolutionary origin of mankind, are scientifically established as firmly and completely as any historical event not witnessed by human observers. Any concession to anti-evolutionists, suggesting that there are scientific reasons to doubt the facticity of evolution, would be propagating a plain untruth.”

Humans Reason Would Be Doubt Mankind Events Evolution Historical Observers Suggesting Untruth Concessions Historical Events Evolution Of Life

Author:Theodosius Dobzhansky

“If you trace the history of mankind, our evolution has been mediated by technology, and without technology it's not really obvious where we would be. So I think we have always been cyborgs in this sense.”

Ifs Thinking Has Beens Would Be Technology Mankind Evolution Obvious Cyborg

Author:Evgeny Morozov

“Appealing to his [Einstein's] way of expressing himself in theological terms, I said: If God had wanted to put everything into the universe from the beginning, He would have created a universe without change, without organisms and evolution, and without man and man's experience of change. But he seems to have thought that a live universe with events unexpected even by Himself would be more interesting than a dead one.”

Ifs Men Way Said Seems Would Be Wanted Universe Term Interesting Events Evolution Unexpected Organisms Theological

Book:Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography

Source: Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography

“However much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their scientific and philosophical points, they would be helpless and a laughing-stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for - of even against - evolution, march in the army of the night, their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason.”

Ifs Knows Reason Might Would Be Night Strong Force Leader Millions Laughing Evolution Argument Army Philosophical Mere March Frightening Helpless Hammers Recruit Impervious Creationist

Author:Isaac Asimov

“Of course the theory of evolution would be vacuous if it offered a glib explanation for every inexplicable act.”

Ifs Would Be Courses Atheism Theory Evolution Positive Atheism Explanation Inexplicable Theory Of Evolution Vacuous

Author:Steven Pinker

“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.”

“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.”

“In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.”

Mean Doe Facts Might Would Be Science Religion Possibility Evolution Tomorrow Equal Degrees Physics Merit Apples Classroom Scientific Facts Rotten Apples

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Moral improvement (or perfecting) require an evolution leading to a higher consciousness, which is the true torch of life; it is what we have failed too much to appreciate, and that which would be fatal to fail to appreciate any longer ("pluslongtemps", Fr.); For if we do not take it upon ourselves to remedy in time to the moral colapse (or bankruptcy) that already threaten, the whole civilisation will risks to disappear.”

Ifs Whole Would Be Consciousness Moral Too Much Failing Risk Evolution Higher Appreciate Disappear Improvement Remedy Civilisation Torches Bankruptcy Higher Consciousness

Author:African Spir

“Its taken 14 billion years for matter to gain the capacity to become conscious of itself. If this is true, it wouldn't make any sense that the whole point of enlightenment would be to escape from the whole process at the very instant that the universe is beginning to awaken to itself.”

Ifs Life Years Matter Whole Would Be Spirituality Universe Process Taken Evolution Enlightenment Conscious Gains Capacity Awakening Billions Instant

Author:Andrew Cohen

“I would not be too surprised to see a flying horse; I would consider it as a gift of the evolution; but I would be very surprised if it had horseshoe sounds!”

Ifs Would Be Sound Evolution Horse Flying Horseshoes

Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan

“Dawkins asserts that final causes and design don't really exist. Unguided evolution explains it all. Francis Crick thought the same thing but was afraid people would be misled by what they actually saw. So he issued this warning: "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved." What? A warning to ignore the obvious? Absolutely. Because if we don't ignore the obvious, we might be tempted to follow common sense and attribute the "appearance" of design to actual design.”

People Ifs Mind Might Would Be Causes Common Saws Design Evolution Finals Obvious Appearance Common Sense Warning Attributes Tempted Biologist Misled

Author:Frank Turek

“It is an odd fact of evolution that we are the only species on Earth capable of creating science and philosophy. There easily could have been another species with some scientific talent, say that of the average human ten-year-old, but not as much as adult humans have; or one that is better than us at physics but worse at biology; or one that is better than us at everything. If there were such creatures all around us, I think we would be more willing to concede that human scientific intelligence might be limited in certain respects.”

“Everything about acting drives me and gives me the need to really try it. It's an evolution - doing the same thing for 12 years is kind of a chunk. Anyone would be up for a little bit of a change. It is so rewarding to do a movie, and so enjoyable. It's hard work, but really wonderful.”

Needs Giving Trying Years Kind Littles Hard Would Be Bits Acting Wonderful Hard Work Evolution Little Bit Give Me Enjoyable Chunks

Author:Agyness Deyn

“But what, after all, is faith? It is a state of mind that leads people to believe something - it doesn't matter what - in the total absence of supporting evidence. If there were good supporting evidence then faith would be superfluous, for the evidence would compel us to believe it anyway. It is this that makes the often-parroted claim that 'evolution itself is a matter of faith' so silly. People believe in evolution not because they arbitrarily want to believe it but because of overwhelming, publicly available evidence.”

People Ifs Want Mind Believe Matter States Would Be Evolution Evidence Claims Available Absence Silly Overwhelming State Of Mind Superfluous Silly People

Author:Richard Dawkins

“What disconcerts the modern world at its very roots is not being sure, and not seeing how it ever could be sure, that there is an outcome-a suitable outcome to evolution. Half our present uneasiness would be turned to happiness if we could once make up our minds to accept the facts and place the essence and the measure of our modern cosmogonies within a noogenesis.”

Ifs World Mind Facts Would Be Half Accepting Seeing Modern Evolution Roots Essence Outcomes Modern World Suitable Uneasiness

Author:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“It's very rare that you get to play a character over the course of so many films. Bella meant a lot to me and she will always be such a formative event in my career. I grew up with her and she and I have been on this great journey together. I also see many parallels between her evolution and my own because I lived through so many things along the way while playing Bella and having this connection to so many people involved in making the films over the years. It would be impossible for me to separate my world from Bella's.”

“I try to look at the evolution of these utopian claims. In the late '60s there was an assumption that the wealth generated by industry would be taxed and then put into social programs and it would provide a baseline of stability that would allow people to have the time for self-expression; and that social contract has eroded over the last four decades and now it's every person for themselves.”

“Time allows change to take place and the very evolution of the universe is what requires some conception of time. Mathematically can we write down a universe that doesn't have time? Sure. Do we think that would be realised in the larger reality that is out there? None of us take that possibility seriously.”

Thinking Writing Reality Would Be Universe Possibility Evolution Conception Realised

Author:Brian Greene

“Only an artist as preternaturally acute and copacetic, as oddly visionary and just odd as Richard Artschwager would be able to lay out the whole course of human evolution and have it make some kind of sense while also seeming like a dazzling insight.”

Humans Kind Whole Would Be Able Artist Courses Evolution Lays Insight Odd Visionaries Seeming Dazzling Human Evolution

Author:Jerry Saltz

“The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.”

Stills Real Reality Would Be Science Special Evolution Capacity Errors Attributes Dna Blunders Bacteria

Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

“Not to take this web of dualities as a sign we are on the right track would be a bit like believing that God put fossils into the rocks in order to mislead Darwin about the evolution of life.”

Believe Would Be Order Bits Rocks Evolution Track Fossils Mislead Duality Right Track Evolution Of Life

Author:Stephen Hawking

“"Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss." "What?" I ask. "The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that." And then he asks me if I'd like to perform on a new singing program he's launching in a few weeks. Something upbeat would be good. He'll send the crew to my house.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Humans Would Be Asks House Race Week Evolution Singing Program Sticks Be Good Ask Me Human Race Crew Katniss Launching Upbeat

Author:Suzanne Collins

“If all the evidence in the universe turned in favour of creationism, I would be the first to admit it, and I would immediately change my mind. As things stand, however, all available evidence (and there is a vast amount of it) favours evolution.”

Ifs Mind Firsts Would Be Universe Evolution Amount Evidence Available Favour Creationism

Book:The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

“An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.”

Source: Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections

“An attempt to study the evolution of living organisms without reference to cytology would be as futile as an account of stellar evolution which ignored spectroscopy.”

Would Be Science Stars Study Evolution Accounts Organisms Ignored Living Organisms Stellar Spectroscopy

Author:John B. S. Haldane

“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

“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

“Man is a megalomaniac among animals-if he sees mountains he will try to imitate them by pyramids, and if he sees some grand process like evolution, and thinks it would be at all possible for him to be in on that game, he would irreverently have to have his whack at that too. That daring megalomania of his-has it not brought him to his present place?”

Ifs Thinking Men Trying Would Be Science Games Process Animal Evolution Mountain Daring Pyramids Megalomania Megalomaniacs

Author:Jacques Loeb

“The chemical differences among various species and genera of animals and plants are certainly as significant for the history of their origins as the differences in form. If we could define clearly the differences in molecular constitution and functions of different kinds of organisms, there would be possible a more illuminating and deeper understanding of question of the evolutionary reactions of organisms than could ever be expected from morphological considerations.”

“The History of Evolution is the real source of light in the investigation of organic bodies. It is applicable at every step, and all our ideas of the correlation of organic bodies will be swayed by our knowledge of the history of evolution. To carry the proof of it into all branches of research would be an almost endless task. (1828)”

Ideas Real Body Light Would Be Science Steps Source Evolution Research Tasks Proof Endless Branches Investigation Every Step Correlation

Author:Karl Ernst von Baer

“Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well.”

Wells Facts Would Be Religion Simple Existence Atheism Fields Ignorance Planets Evolution Creatures Deny Explanation Betray Elegant Living Creatures Lack Of Education

Author:Richard Dawkins

“When environments change, they usually do so pretty rapidly, at rates with which adaptation by natural selection would be hard put to keep up. When such change occurs, the quality of your adaptation to your old habitat is irrelevant, and any competitive advantage you might have had may be eliminated at a stroke.”

May Hard Might Would Be Natural Quality Environment Evolution Advantage Rate Strokes Irrelevant Selection Adaptation Natural Selection Habitat Competitive Advantage

Author:Ian Tattersall

“Only a tiny fraction of corpses fossilize, and we are lucky to have as many intermediate fossils as we do. We could easily have had no fossils at all, and still the evidence for evolution from other sources, such as molecular genetics and geographical distribution, would be overwhelmingly strong. On the other hand, evolution makes the strong prediction that if a single fossil turned up in the wrong geological stratum, the theory would be blown out of the water.”

Ifs Stills Hands Would Be Religion Strong Water Theory Source Evolution Lucky Evidence Tiny Predictions Distribution Fossils Corpses Genetics Fractions

Book:The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

“In the final analysis the hierarchic pattern is nothing like the straightforward witness for organic evolution that is commonly assumed. There are facets of the hierarchy which do not flow naturally from any sort of random undirected evolutionary process. If the hierarchy suggests any model of nature it is typology and not evolution. How much easier it would be to argue the case for evolution if all nature's divisions were blurred and indistinct, if the systema naturalae was largely made up of overlapping classes indicative of sequence and continuity.”

“All the ills from which America suffers can be traced back to the teaching of evolution. It would be better to destroy every other book ever written, and save just the first three verses of Genesis.”

Firsts Book Would Be America Suffering Three Written Teaching Evolution Scary Verses Genesis

Author:William Jennings Bryan

“We add that it would be all too easy to object that mutations have no evolutionary effect because they are eliminated by natural selection. Lethal mutations (the worst kind) are effectively eliminated, but others persist as alleles. ...Mutants are present within every population, from bacteria to man. There can be no doubt about it. But for the evolutionist, the essential lies elsewhere: in the fact that mutations do not coincide with evolution.”

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Evolution Quotes