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Selection Quotes

Browse 515 quotes about Selection.

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Selection Quotes

“The language we're exchanging, the fillings in our teeth, the pavement on the road outside, everywhere you look, for better or for worse, you're going to see evidence that accepting reality is not a human's tendency, and not what we're good at, and not, in my speculation, what God or Natural Selection hired us to do. We've been hired, by this universe, to dream, to aspire, to make things that weren't real real - and because that involves a lot of failure, we're damn good at doing that, too.”

HumansLooksRealDreamRealityUniverseLanguageNaturalAcceptingEvidenceTeethTendenciesDamnAspireSelectionSpeculationFillingNatural SelectionPavementExchangingAccepting RealityDamn GoodFilling In
Author:Dan Harmon
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“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.”

WellsIdeasLastsAsksLiteratureNaturalReligiousSuccessfulPiecesAtheismDesignEvolutionResearchProgramBasesIntelligentRemainsPositive AtheismDecadesAlternativesJudgedPlatformsSelectionCriteriaNatural SelectionDarwinismScientific ResearchGaugesIntelligent DesignDatabasesKeywords
Author:Chet Raymo
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“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.”

IfsStillsWholeMightPoetryPurposeUniverseImaginationNaturalDealsMoralFoolBearsEvolutionConscienceIntelligenceAccidentsProofSignificanceMetaphysicsSelectionDecencyUnnaturalThoroughNatural SelectionRascalsAppropriateness
Author:George Bernard Shaw
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“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.”

IfsKnowsMindDoeSaidPlayEyeFormPurposeProcessNaturalExistenceVisionRolesPlansEvolutionSightBlindSelfishExplanationUnconsciousSelectionNatural SelectionForesightSelfish GeneEvolution Of Life
Author:Richard Dawkins
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“I believe-and human psychologists, particularly psychoanalysts should test this-that present-day civilized man suffers from insufficient discharge of his aggressive drive. It is more than probable that the evil effects of the human aggressive drives, explained by Sigmund Freud as the results of a special death wish, simply derive from the fact that in prehistoric times intra-specific selection bred into man a measure of aggression drive for which in the social order today he finds no adequate outlet.”

MenShouldBelieveHumansFactsTodaySufferingOrderEvilI BelieveWishSocialResultsSpecialEffectsTestsCivilizedAggressiveAggressionSelectionAdequateOutletsPsychologistPresent DayInsufficientSocial OrderDischargePrehistoricDeath WishPrehistoric Times
Book:ON AGRESSION
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“I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection. But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.”

IfsMenSometimesUsedOrderTermNaturalPrinciplesExpressionSurvivalMarkRelationAccurateSelectionVariationConvenientNatural SelectionSurvival Of The Fittest
Author:Charles Darwin
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“On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non facit saltum.” This canon, if we look only to the present inhabitants of the world, is not strictly correct, but if we include all those of past times, it must by my theory be strictly true.”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
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“It is the highest and most legitimate pride of an Englishman to have the letters M.P. written after his name. No selection from the alphabet, no doctorship, no fellowship, be it of ever so learned or royal a society, no knightship,--not though it be of the Garter,--confers so fair an honour.”

PoliticsNamesWrittenPrideHighestFairsLettersHonourRoyalSelectionFellowshipEnglishmenAlphabetGarters
Book:Can You Forgive Her? (Unabridged): Victorian Classic from the prolific English novelist, known for Chronicles of Barsetshire, The Palliser Novels, The Prime Minister, The Warden, Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne and Phineas Finn…
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“Artists, whatever their medium, make selections from the abounding materials of life, and organize these selections into works that are under the control of the artist.... In relation to the inclusiveness and literally endless intricacy of life, art is arbitrary, symbolic and abstracted. That is its value and the source of its own kind of order and coherence.”

LifeKindArtArtistValuesOrderMaterialsSourceArt IsRelationEndlessMediumsOrganizeSelectionArbitrarySymbolicCoherenceIntricacyInclusiveness
Author:Jane Jacobs
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“For better or worse, editing is what editors are for; and editing is selection and choice of material. That editors newspaper or broadcast can and do abuse this power is beyond doubt, but that is no reason to deny the discretion Congress provided.”

ReasonChoicesDoubtMaterialsAbuseCongressDenyNewspapersNo ReasonEditorsEditingSelectionDiscretion
Book:Significant Supreme Court Opinions of the Honorable Warren E. Burger: Chief Justice of the United States
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“If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic....Authors arrive at text and subtext in thousands of ways, learning each time they begin anew how to recognize a valuable idea and how to reader the texture that accompanies, reveals or displays it to its best advantage.”

IfsThinkingWayWritingIdeasOrderMagicMysteryReaderDiscoveryAdvantageValuableAweReverenceDisplaySelectionTextureAccompanySubtext
Author:Toni Morrison
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“The right to live does not connote the right of each man to reproduce his kind ... As we lessen the stringency of natural selection, and more and more of the weaklings and the unfit survive, we must increase the standard, mental and physical, of parentage.”

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Book:Darwinism, Medical Progress and Eugenics: The Cavendish Lecture, 1912, an Address to the Medical Profession
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“It is much more accurate to identify the factors of production as know-how (that is genetic information structure), energy, and materials, for, as we have seen, all processes of production involve the direction of energy by some know-how structure toward the selection, transportation, and transformation of materials into the product”

KnowsEnergyProcessKnow HowInformationMaterialsProductsTransformationStructureProductionsFactorsAccurateSelectionTransportationFactors Of Production
Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“It is clear that the building of models is not a purely mechanical process but requires skill of a high order - not merely mathematical skill but a sensitivity to the relative importance of different factors and a critical, almost an artistic, faculty in the selection of behaviour equations which are reasonable, tentative hypotheses in explaining the behaviour of actual economies.”

DifferentOrderProcessEconomyClearBuildingSkillsModelsImportanceCriticalFactorsArtisticMathematicalReasonableFacultyRelativeBehaviourSensitivityHypothesisSelectionEquationsExplaining
Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“The debate can be put in the form of the question: Resolved, that the best of money managers cannot be demonstrated to be able to deliver the goods of superior portfolio-selection performance. Any jury that reviews the evidence, and there is a great deal of relevant evidence, must at least come out with the Scottish verdict: Superior investment performance is unproved.”

AbleFormDealsEvidencePerformancesInvestmentInvestingDebateSuperiorsManagersGoodsReviewsRelevantSelectionJuryScottishVerdictPortfoliosSuperior Performance
Author:Paul Samuelson
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“Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society. If one colony member devotes its life to service over marriage, the individual is of benefit to the society, even though it does not have personal offspring. A soldier going into battle will benefit his country, but he runs a higher risk of death than one who does not. An altruist benefits the group, but a layabout or coward who saves his own energy and reduces his bodily risk passes the resulting social cost to others.”

IfsDoeCountryRunningIndividualEnergySocialSinResultsVirtueRiskGroupsHigherBattleCostMembersBenefitsSoldierSelfishnessCowardAltruismVersusSelectionOffspringColony
Author:E. O. Wilson
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“It is unwise to equate scientific activity with what we call reason, poetic activity with what we call imagination. Without the imaginative leap from facts to generalisation, no theoretic discovery in science is made. The poet, on the other hand, must not imagine but reason--that is to say, he must exercise a great deal of consciously directed thought in the selection and rejection of his data: there is a technical logic, a poetic reasoning in his choice of the words, rhythms and images by which a poem's coherence is achieved.”

MadeReasonFactsHandsSciencePoetryChoicesImaginationDealsImaginePoetExerciseActivityDiscoveryLogicRhythmDataRejectionReasoningPoeticLeapSelectionImaginativeUnwiseCoherenceDiscovery In ScienceGeneralisation
Author:Cecil Day-Lewis
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“In almost every computation a great variety of arrangements for the succession of the processes is possible, and various considerations must influence the selections amongst them for the purposes of a calculating engine. One essential object is to choose that arrangement which shall tend to reduce to a minimum the time necessary for completing the calculation.”

PurposeProcessInfluenceObjectsEssentialsVariousVarietyConsiderationEnginesMinimumArrangementsSelectionCalculationsSuccessionCalculatingCompletingComputation
Author:Ada Lovelace
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“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.”

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Author:William Kristol
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“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.”

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Author:Kurt Vonnegut
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“As a youngster, I read of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. As a student, I wrote English reports on science fiction. And as a fighter pilot, I observed the selection of the Mercury astronauts. All this was fascinating, but I really didn't think I would ever be a part of it. It was only when my good friend Ed White was selected as a Gemini astronaut that I decided to join NASA as part of the Apollo program.”

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Author:Buzz Aldrin
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“One of the important things about religion is that it is a sphere which is partially protected from selection. Religious creativity occurs when people pull out of the whole selectivity issue. Becoming celibate - obviously you couldn't be less selective that that. Yes, selection is always in the background. But it's not always there in the foreground. If you don't understand that, you're missing a lot.”

PeopleIfsImportantWholeReligiousCreativityIssuesMissingBecomingImportant ThingsBackgroundsSpheresProtectedSelectionSelectiveForeground
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
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“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.”

ShouldStillsBookStatesFactsScienceNaturalCasesRecordsAcceptanceEvolutionLet MePrejudiceExplanationSufficientSelectionFossilsFringeLunaticNatural SelectionPropsStrawsFundamentalistUnqualified
Author:D. V. Ager
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“The lowest strata are reproducing too fast. Therefore... they must not have too easy access to relief or hospital treatment lest the removal of the last check on natural selection should make it too easy for children to be produced or to survive; long unemployment should be a ground for sterilisation.”

ShouldChildrenLongLastsEasyNaturalAccessChecksReliefTreatmentHospitalsUnemploymentLowestSelectionNatural SelectionRemovalReproducingEasy Access
Book:Man in the Modern World
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