“There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded.” HumansTwoDifferentFactsWisdomHuman BeingsStatementsHuman Wisdom Author:Mark Van Doren
“I like to summarize what I regard as the pedestal-smashing messages of Darwin's revolution in the following statement, which might be chanted several times a day, like a Hare Krishna mantra, to encourage penetration into the soul: Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which, if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again, or perhaps any twig with any property that we would care to call consciousness.” IfsHumansLittlesSoulEndsMightCareGrowsResultsConsciousnessProgressRevolutionMessagesRegardPropertyFollowingSeedsTinyStatementsCosmicPredictableKrishnaMantrasPedestalEnd ResultsHaresSmashingTwigsPenetrationAfterthoughtFortuitousHare Krishna Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“The world that seemed so various and new, well, it does contract. One's burning desire to investigate human behavior, and to make, or imply, statements about it, does fall off. And so one does find that early works are full of energy and also full of vulgarity, crudity, and incompetence, and later works are more carefully finished, and in that sense better literary products. But . . . there's often a freshness that is missing in later works--for every gain there's a loss. I think it evens out in that way.” ThinkingWorldWayHumansWellsDoeDesireFallEnergyLossMissingProductsBehaviorGainsVariousFinishedStatementsBurningContractsHuman BehaviorIncompetenceFreshnessVulgarityBurning DesireEarly Work Author:Kingsley Amis