We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories. E. O. Wilson More Quotes by E. O. Wilson More Quotes From E. O. Wilson The human race is not divided into two opposing camps of good and evil. It is made up of those who are capable of learning and those who are incapable of doing so. E. O. Wilson race evil two The search for knowledge is in our genes. It was put there by our distant ancestors who spread across the world, and it's never going to be quenched. E. O. Wilson ancestor genes world Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world. E. O. Wilson lasts people world Humanity, in the desperate attempt to fit 8 billion or more people on the planet and give them a higher standard of living, is at risk of pushing the rest of life off the globe. E. O. Wilson rest-of-life giving people There is no better high than discovery. E. O. Wilson recovery discovery inspirational We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity. E. O. Wilson nature humanity mean The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist or Islam or any religion that believes in a supernatural supervalance over humanity. E. O. Wilson southern humanity believe Homo sapiens, the first truly free species, is about to decommission natural selection, the force that made us. Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become. E. O. Wilson wish science looks Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company, willing to try to get a better atmosphere through a demonstration of democratic principles, fairness and cooperation, a better product, those will win in the end. E. O. Wilson atmosphere winning order Science needs the intuition and metaphorical power of the arts, and the arts need the fresh blood of science ... Interpretation is the logical channel of consilient explanation between science and the arts. The arts ... also nourish our craving for the mystical. E. O. Wilson intuition blood art Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life. E. O. Wilson confused stars real Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions. E. O. Wilson energy blessed enemy Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view. E. O. Wilson effort real views The toxic mix of religion and tribalism has become so dangerous as to justify taking seriously the alternative view, that humanism based on science is the effective antidote, the light and the way at last placed before us. E. O. Wilson toxic light views Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them. E. O. Wilson rest-of-life land ants Even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart. E. O. Wilson mind winning heart Now when you cut a forest, an ancient forest in particular, you are not just removing a lot of big trees and a few birds fluttering around in the canopy. You are drastically imperiling a vast array of species within a few square miles of you. The number of these species may go to tens of thousands. Many of them are still unknown to science, and science has not yet discovered the key role undoubtedly played in the maintenance of that ecosystem, as in the case of fungi, microorganisms, and many of the insects. E. O. Wilson cutting numbers science Without the instruments and accumulated knowledge of the natural sciences... humans are trapped in a cognitive prison. They are like intelligent fish born in a deep shallowed pool. Wondering and restless, longing to reach out, they think about the world outside. They invent ingenious speculations and myths about the origin of the confining waters, of the sun and the sky and the stars above , and the meaning of their own existence. But they are wrong, always wrong because the world is too remote from ordinary experience to be merely imagined. E. O. Wilson intelligent stars thinking Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other living creatures, but because knowing them well elevates the very concept of life. E. O. Wilson knowing humanity spiritual In the early stages of creation of both art and science, everything in the mind is a story. E. O. Wilson stories mind art
