Example Quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

9 Example quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

All Example quotes Stephen Jay Gould’s page

Stephen Jay Gould’s nine succinct thoughts on Example blend science and narrative, delivering thought‑provoking snapshots of his analytical mind. A compact source for those who enjoy his blend of curiosity and clarity.

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Some beliefs may be subject to such instant, brutal and unambiguous rejection. For example: no left-coiling periwinkle has ever been found among…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Forelimbs of people, porpoises, bats and horses provide the classic example of homology in most textbooks. They look different, and do different…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Even the standard example of ancient nonsense - the debate about angels on pinheads - makes sense once you realize that theologians…

Stephen Jay Gould

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All interesting issues in natural history are questions of relative frequency, not single examples. Everything happens once amidst the richness of nature.…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Still, our creationist incubi, who would never let facts spoil a favorite argument, refuse to yield, and continue to assert the absence…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Since the universe must contain millions of appropriate planets, consciousness in some form - but not with the paired eyes and limbs,…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Evolving life must experience a vast range of possibilities, based on environmental histories so unpredictable that no realized route - the pathway…

Stephen Jay Gould

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When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Throughout his last half-dozen books, for example, Arthur Koestler has been conducting a campaign against his own misunderstanding of Darwinism. He hopes…

Stephen Jay Gould

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More by Stephen Jay Gould

I strongly reject any conceptual scheme that places our options on a line, and holds that the only alternative to a pair of extreme…

Stephen Jay Gould

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History employs evolution to structure biological events in time.

Stephen Jay Gould

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In his anti-Darwinian book... (and eponymously named The Neck of the Giraffe ), Francis Hitching tells the story... "The need to survive by reaching…

Stephen Jay Gould

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... many folks take them seriously because they just 'know' that evolution can never be seen in the immediate here and now. In fact,…

Stephen Jay Gould

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Charles Darwin viewed the fossil record more as an embarrassment than as an aid to his theory ...

Stephen Jay Gould

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Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower"…

Stephen Jay Gould

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The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

Stephen Jay Gould

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The true beauty of nature is her amplitude; she exists neither for nor because of us, and possesses a staying power that all our…

Stephen Jay Gould

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With copious evidence ranging from Plato's haughtiness to Beethoven's tirades, we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a…

Stephen Jay Gould

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When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably)…

Stephen Jay Gould

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The truly awesome intellectuals in our history have not merely made discoveries; they have woven variegated, but firm, tapestries of comprehensive coverage. The tapestries…

Stephen Jay Gould

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I believe that we can still have a genre of scientific books suitable for and accessible alike to professionals and interested laypeople. The concepts…

Stephen Jay Gould