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"26 Stephen Jay Gould Quotes & Sayings

      American     /     View profile
Born: 10 September 1941. Died: 20 May 2002 | Paleontologist | Biologist | Historian |

Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism--and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.

Skepticism The agent Organized irrationalism Human social
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Life is short, and potential studies infinite. We have a much better chance of accomplishing something significant when we follow our passionate interests and work in areas of deepest personal meaning.

Life Is short Potential studies Infinite
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Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information; it is a creative human activity.

Science Heartless pursuit Objective information Creative
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When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

People learn Judgment Their hopes Political manipulation
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People talk about human intelligence as the greatest adaptation in the history of the planet. It is an amazing and marvelous thing, but in evolutionary terms, it is as likely to do us in as to help us along.

Human intelligence Greatest adaptation The history The planet
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Science is an integral part of culture. It's not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It's one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.

Science Integral part Culture Foreign thing
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Nothing matches the holiness and fascination of accurate and intricate detail.

Nothing matches The holiness Fascination Accurate intricate detail
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Geology gave us the immensity of time and taught us how little of it our own species has occupied.

Geology The immensity Time Taught us
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The causes of life's history cannot resolve the riddle of life's meaning.

The causes Life's history Cannot resolve Life's meaning
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If we use the past only to creature heroes for present purposes, we will never understand the richness of human thought or the plurality of ways of knowing.

We use The past Creature heroes Present purpose
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Alter any event, ever so slightly and without apparent importance at the time, and evolution cascades into radically different channel.

Alter Any event Apparent importance The time
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Knowledge and wonder are the dyad of our worthy lives as intellectual beings.

Knowledge Wonder Worthy lives Intellectual beings
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We must categorize and simplify in order to comprehend. But the reduction of complexity entails a great danger, since the line between enlightening epitome and vulgarized distortion is so fine.

Must categorized Simplify Comprehend The reduction
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Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences.

Evolution Fascinating subjects The sciences
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A lot of scientists hate writing. Most scientists love being in the lab and doing the work and when the work is done, they are finished.

Scientist Hate writing Love being The lab
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I don't think academic writing ever was wonderful. However, science used to be much less specialized.

Academic writing Was wonderful Science Less specialized
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At a minimum, in explaining evolutionary pathways through time, the constraints imposed by history rise to equal prominence with the immediate advantages of adaptation.

A minimum Evolutionary pathways Through time Constraints imposed
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Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

Death The ultimate enemy Nothing reproachable Rage mightily
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The more important the subject and the closer it cuts to the bone of our hopes and needs, the more we are likely to err in establishing a framework for analysis.

More important The subject The closer The bone
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Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.

The mirror Be tempted To equate Transient domination
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All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence.I had to place myself amidst the variation.

Evolutionary biologists Variation itself Is nature's Irreducible essence
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We pass through this world but once.

Pass through This world
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Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.

Few tragedies More extensive Life Few injustices
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Creationist critics often charge that evolution cannot be tested, and therefore cannot be viewed as a properly scientific subject at all. This claim is rhetorical nonsense.

Creationist critics That evolution Be tested Be viewed
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What you see is that the most outstanding feature of life's history is a constant domination by bacteria.

Outstanding feature Life's history Constant domination By bacteria
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Life began three and a half billion years ago, necessarily about as simple as it could be, because life arose spontaneously from the organic compounds in the primeval oceans.

Life began Arose spontaneously Organic compounds Primeval oceans
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Stephen Jay Gould Quotes & Sayings