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Science Quotes by E. O. Wilson

54 Science quotes by E. O. Wilson

All Science quotes E. O. Wilson’s page

A universal treasure is described as science, a shared human possession that guides our understanding of the world. The quotes celebrate the natural world’s hidden services and call for a purpose‑driven scientific life. They also urge young researchers to keep pushing boundaries for humanity’s benefit.

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If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.

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The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper

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In science, obsessiveness under psychological control can be a virtue.

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In the early stages of creation of both art and science, everything in the mind is a story.

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To know how scientists engage in visual imagery is to understand how they think creatively.

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Much of good science and perhaps all of great science has its roots in fantasy.

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Go as far as you can, [young scientists]. The world needs you badly.

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No barrier stands between the material world of science and the sensibilities of the hunter and the poet,

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It may be argued that to know one kind of beetle is to know them all. But a species is not like…

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By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.

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In the process of natural selection, then, any device that can insert a higher proportion of certain genes into subsequent generations will…

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Homo sapiens, the first truly free species, is about to decommission natural selection, the force that made us. Soon we must look…

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To search for unasked questions, plus questions to put to already acquired but unsought answers, it is vital to give full play…

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Far more important throughout the rest of science is the ability to form concepts, during which the researcher conjures images and processes…

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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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[The natural world cleans water, pollinates plants and provides pharmaceuticals, among many other gifts.] Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to…

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From the freedom to explore comes the joy of learning. From knowledge acquired by personal initiative arises the desire for more knowledge.…

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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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The students of biodiversity, the ones we most need in science today, have an enormous task ahead of molecular biology and the…

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By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified. Today the greatest divide within humanity…

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[T]he true natural sciences lock together in theory and evidence to form the ineradicable technical base of modern civilization. The pseudosciences satisfy…

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Biology has finally opened up to achieve a unifying embrace of all its disciplines. We're seeing the renaissance of what could be…

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

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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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Biology is a science of three dimensions. The first is the study of each species across all levels of biological organization, molecule…

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A paradigm shift is the best a scientist can hope for. Whenever I smell an opportunity like that, I go after it.…

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Now when you cut a forest, an ancient forest in particular, you are not just removing a lot of big trees and…

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Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.

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I believe that traditional religious belief and scientific knowledge depict the universe in radically different ways. At the bedrock they are incompatible…

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Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive.

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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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In a purely technical sense, each species of higher organism-beetle, moss, and so forth, is richer in information than a Caravaggio painting,…

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In the attempt to make scientific discoveries, every problem is an opportunity — and the more difficult the problem, the greater will…

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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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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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The growth of a naturalist is like the growth of a musician or athlete: excellence for the talented, lifelong enjoyment for the…

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What's been gratifying is to live long enough to see molecular biology and evolutionary biology growing toward each other and uniting in…

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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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The big question that scientists haven't even begun to get an answer for is how many species of microorganisms are there? Now,…

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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.