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Humans Quotes by E. O. Wilson

41 Humans quotes by E. O. Wilson

All Humans quotes E. O. Wilson’s page

Altruistic groups often beat selfish ones, according to E. O. Wilson. He notes that biology shows humans as a very young species, still learning about origins and minds. He also describes our minds as survival tools and celebrates the innate joy we feel when surrounded by nature’s abundance.

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Wonderful theory, wrong species.

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One difference between ants and humans is that while ants send their old women off to war, humans send their young men.

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The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient biosphere.

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Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.

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The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans.

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Overall, the human brain is the most complex object known in the universe - known, that is, to itself.

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The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology.

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That is the great mystery of human evolution: how to account for calculus and Mozart.

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To genetic evolution, the human lineage has added the parallel track of cultural evolution.

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The human race is not divided into two opposing camps of good and evil. It is made up of those who are…

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Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin…

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I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and…

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Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms.

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So, the ant way of life is very ancient and very successful. As far as human beings are concerned, we've been around…

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Human beings function better if they are deceived by their genes into thinking that there is a disinterested objective morality binding upon…

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The cutting of primeval forest and other disasters, fueled by the demands of growing human populations, are the overriding threat to biological…

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Darwin's dice have rolled badly for Earth. The human species is, in a word, an environmental abnormality. Perhaps a law of evolution…

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Human existence may be simpler than we thought. There is no predestination, no unfathomed mystery of life. Demons and gods do not…

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Most people believe they know how they themselves think, how others think too, and even how institutions evolve. But they are wrong.…

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The cost of scientific advance is the humbling recognition that reality was not constructed to be easily grasped by the human mind.…

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Today [the voice of women] is being heard loud and clear. But I do not read the welcome triumph of feminism, social,…

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Yes, the natural sciences are telling us a great deal about human origins, the origins of our species the origins of our…

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Science offers the boldest metaphysics of the age. It is a thoroughly human construct, driven by the faith that if we dream,…

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I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to…

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The green prehuman earth is the mystery we were chosen to solve, a guide to the birthplace of our spirit, but it…

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Without the instruments and accumulated knowledge of the natural sciences... humans are trapped in a cognitive prison. They are like intelligent fish…

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While ants exist in just the right numbers for the rest of the living world, humans have become too numerous. If we…

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The time has come to link ecology to economic and human development. When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree,…

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Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human…

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No species ... possesses a purpose beyond the imperatives created by genetic history ... The human mind is a device for survival…

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To be anthropocentric is to remain unaware of the limits of human nature, the significance of biological processes underlying human behavior, and…

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But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity, and that being able to join in musical activity, along…

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The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist…

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It's always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That's just in human relationships.

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The genius of human society is in fact the ease with which alliances are formed, broken, and reconstituted, always with strong emotional…

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Biophilia: the innate pleasure from living abundance and diversity as manifested by the human impulse to imitate Nature with gardens.

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An individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being's, can learn a…

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Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always…

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People must belong to a tribe; they yearn to have a purpose larger than themselves. We are obligated by the deepest drives…

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The genes hold culture on a leash. The leash is very long, but inevitably values will be constrained in accordance with their…

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More by E. O. Wilson

Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled…

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…

Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups…

When all else fails, men turn to reason.

The commitment must be much deeper - to let no species knowingly die; to take all reasonable action to protect every species and race…

Science is not marginal. Like art, it is a universal possession of humanity, and scientific knowledge has become a vital part of our species'…

The living environment is the biosphere, the thin layer around the world of living organisms. We're part of that. Our existence is dependent on…

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…

We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.

In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems.

If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is…

The extinctions ongoing worldwide promise to be at least as great as the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the age of…

Most people are surprised when they hear my somber figures: we know of 2 million species of plants, animals and microorganisms, and we can…

Because the living environment is what really sustains us.

The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.