In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time. E. O. Wilson More Quotes by E. O. Wilson More Quotes From E. O. Wilson We need freedom to roam across land owned by no one but protected by all, whose unchanging horizon is the same that bounded the world of our millennial ancestors. E. O. Wilson horizon land needs 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. E. O. Wilson jehovah care loyalty If someone could actually prove scientifically that there is such a thing as a supernatural force, it would be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. So the notion that somehow scientists are resisting it is ludicrous. E. O. Wilson supernatural-forces would-be discovery No statistical proofs exist that prayer reduces illness and mortality, except perhaps through a psychogenic enhancement of the immune system; if it were otherwise the whole world would pray continuously. E. O. Wilson prayer world religion The newborn infant is now seen to be wired with awesome precision... This marvelous robot will be launched into the world under the care of its parents... But to what extent does the wiring of the neurons, so undeniably encoded in the genes, preordain the directions that social development will follow? E. O. Wilson robots parent doe The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined. E. O. Wilson genes viruses rest-of-life These slender little people (Homo Habilis), the size of modern 12 year olds, were devoid of fangs and claws and almost certainly slower on foot than the four legged animals around them. They could have succeeded in their new way of life only by relying on tools and sophisticated cooperative behavior E. O. Wilson feet animal years The genius of human society is in fact the ease with which alliances are formed, broken, and reconstituted, always with strong emotional appeals to rules believed to be absolute. E. O. Wilson emotional broken strong If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving little or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion acres) would support about 10 billion people. E. O. Wilson support land people Wonderful theory, wrong species. E. O. Wilson theory ants wonderful In my heart, I'm an Alabaman who went up north to work. E. O. Wilson up-north my-heart heart Today [the voice of women] is being heard loud and clear. But I do not read the welcome triumph of feminism, social, economic, and creative, as a brief for postmodernism. The advance, while opening new avenues of expression and liberating deep pools of talent, has not exploded human nature into little pieces. Instead, it has set the stage for a fuller exploration of the universal traits that unite humanity. E. O. Wilson feminist voice expression The green prehuman earth is the mystery we were chosen to solve, a guide to the birthplace of our spirit, but it is slipping away. The way back seems harder every year. If there is danger in the human trajectory, it is not so much in the survival of our own species as in the fulfillment of the ultimate irony of organic evolution: that in the instant of achieving self-understanding, through the mind of man, life has doomed its most beautiful creations. And thus humanity closes the door on its past. E. O. Wilson beautiful men past I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world. E. O. Wilson foundation ecosystems running [T]he true natural sciences lock together in theory and evidence to form the ineradicable technical base of modern civilization. The pseudosciences satisfy personal psychological needs... but lack the ideas or the means to contribute to the technical base. E. O. Wilson civilization mean ideas In addition I wanted to write a Southern novel, because I'm a Southerner. E. O. Wilson novel southern writing All three of the Abrahamic religions were born and nurtured in arid, disturbed environments. E. O. Wilson environment born three The cost of scientific advance is the humbling recognition that reality was not constructed to be easily grasped by the human mind. This is the cardinal tenet of scientific understanding. Our species and its ways of thinking are a product of evolution, not the purpose of evolution. E. O. Wilson understanding reality thinking Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety. E. O. Wilson atheism religious character Much of good science and perhaps all of great science has its roots in fantasy. E. O. Wilson great-science fantasy roots
