Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene is a classic example of science fiction. — Pope Benedict XVI Copy Share Image
The God of the Old testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction... — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random. — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Human vanity cherishes the absurd notion that our species is the final goal of evolution. — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Selfish-gene theory tells us nothing about the value of interacting through language. — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
“It was a kindness that was hard to understand... and the most selfishness she's ever shown.” — Bisco Hatori Copy Share Image
People who criticize The Selfish Gene like that often haven't read it. The selfish gene accounts for altruism toward kin and individuals… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts which… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We,… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
A gene might be able to assist replicas of itself that are sitting in other bodies. If so, this would appear as… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
I think we all have a selfish gene which rises to the top, sometimes. But then we're also all capable of a… — Jim Broadbent Copy Share Image
I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
I don't actually think 'The Selfish Gene' is a very good title. I think that's one of my worst titles. — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Our minds have been built by selfish genes, but they have been built to be social, trustworthy and cooperative. — Matt Ridley Copy Share Image
Leaders who forbid their followers to use effective contraceptive methods express a preference for "natural" methods of population limitation, and a natural… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Whenever conditions arise in which a new kind of replicator can make copies of itself, the new replicators will tend to take… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
They are in you and me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence.… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
“Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Faith is powerful enough to immunize people against all appeals to pity, to forgiveness, to decent human feelings. It even immunizes them… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Just as blueprints don't necessarily specify blue buildings, selfish genes don't necessarily specify selfish organisms. As we shall see, sometimes the most… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“A foreign publisher of my first book [ The Selfish Gene ] confessed that he could not sleep for three nights after… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. We… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation forthe existence and apparently… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
“Perhaps we should rejoice that people’s emotions aren’t designed for the good of the group. Often the best way to benefit one’s… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Many people think that the theory of the selfish gene says that “animals try to spread their genes.” That misstates the facts… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
“Among the required reading for all PUAs were books on evolutionary theory: The Red Queen by Matt Ridley, The Selfish Gene by… — Neil Strauss Copy Share Image
If the universe were just electrons and selfish genes, meaningless tragedies ... are exactly what we should expect, along with equally meaningless… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
I've always been antagonistic to any naïve application of the selfish gene theory to politics. Some people have attempted to suggest that… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
“Relatives share a substantial proportion of their genes. Each selfish gene therefore has its loyalties divided between different bodies.” — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Of course we're all programmed genetically to some extent. But the "selfish gene" thesis doesn't explain everything. — Jane Goodall Copy Share Image
What you cannot have is a gene that sacrifices itself for the benefit of other genes. What you can have is a… — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. — Richard Dawkins Copy Share Image
Science is a victim of its own reductive metaphors: 'Big Bang,' 'selfish gene' and so on. Richard Dawkins' selfish gene fitted with… — Charles Jencks Copy Share Image
![“A foreign publisher of my first book [ The Selfish Gene ] confessed that he could not sleep for three nights after reading it, so troubled was he by what he saw as its cold, bleak message. Others have asked me how I can bear to get up in the mornings. A teacher from a distant country wrote to me…” quote by Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/765/richard-dawkins-115_book_a-foreign-publisher-of-my-first-book-the_51527.jpg)
