Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.
Imagine that: If you could change one of the genes in an experiment, an aging gene, maybe you could slow down aging and extend lifespan.
Jehovah had nothing to say to Moses and the others about the care of the planet. He had plenty to say about tribal loyalty and conquest.
The idea of protoplasm, which was really a name for our ignorance, [is] only a little less misleading than the expression "Vital force".
The scientific argument advanced for intelligent design at the Dover trial, those arguments collapsed, scientifically and intellectually
Evolution is no linear family tree, but change in the single multidimensional being that has grown to cover the entire surface of Earth.
The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.
The challenge in a startup is you hit a lot of turbulence, and you want people who understand that it's just turbulence and not a crisis.
I really like raw connections, and so I've always had a harder time in politics because I feel there's a lot of veneer around everything.
Did you know that there was a study in 1961 that found that 90 percent of physicians wouldn't tell you if you were diagnosed with cancer?
Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.
America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.
A few great minds are enough to endow humanity with monstrous power, but a few great hearts are not enough to make us worthy of using it.
The scientific argument advanced for intelligent design at the Dover trial, those arguments collapsed, scientifically and intellectually.
Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.
The extinctions ongoing worldwide promise to be at least as great as the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the age of dinosaurs.
I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul.
The gap between brute power and human need continues to grow, as the power fattens on the same faulty technology that intensifies the need.
Eating a tuna roll at a sushi restaurant should be considered no more environmentally benign than driving a Hummer or harpooning a manatee.
A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.
All of the details that most of us memorize in medical school - you don't have to learn those things. They're going to be in your computer.
No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.
In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other living creatures, but because knowing them well elevates the very concept of life.
It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere.
Ants make up two-thirds of the biomass of all the insects. There are millions of species of organisms and we know almost nothing about them.
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
My reflection, when I first made myself master of the central idea of the 'Origin', was, 'How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!'
The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can.
We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories.
I was a senior in high school when I decided I wanted to work on ants as a career. I just fell in love with them, and have never regretted it.
What we need is an electronic encyclopedia of life, with one page for each species. On each page is given everything known about that species.
In the end ... success or failure will come down to an ethical decision, one on which those now living will be judged for generations to come.
There are never victories in conservation. If you want to save a species or a habitat, it's a fight forevermore. You can never turn your back.
It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.
Secular humanists can sit around and talk about their love of humanity, but it doesn't stack up against a two-millennium-old funeral high mass.
Years ago R.N.A. was kind of a bit player in the cell. Now our picture's completely inverted, and we think R.N.A.'s really the important thing.
I love to do things like sail and hike, but they don't give me the satisfaction of knowing the potential of something you've learned in the lab.
There can be no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.
I will argue that every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished, and never to be surrendered without a struggle.
In neither his definition nor the examples illustrating what memes are does Dawkins mention anything that would distinguish memes from concepts.
Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third.
In fact, words are well adapted for description and the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds of precise thought other symbols are much better.
I am always struck by the fact that human awareness of our place in nature, like so much of modern science, began with the Industrial Revolution.
Your genome sequence will become a vital part of your medical record, thereby providing critical information about how to optimize your wellness.
I personally like the idea of shellfish aquaculture. These are animals that stay quiet, they stay where you put them, and they clean up the water.
So important are insects and other land-dwelling arthropods that if all were to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months.
Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood - we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we.
'Intelligent Design,' the relabeled, repackaged form of American creationism, has always had a problem. It just can't seem to produce any evidence.
Few males achieve any real freedom in their sexual relations even with their wives. Few males realise how badly inhibited they are on these matters.