I think history has shown that the worst way to [try to] bring people over and actually change public opinion is by… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Without the instruments and accumulated knowledge of the natural sciences... humans are trapped in a cognitive prison. They are like intelligent fish… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Most people believe they know how they themselves think, how others think too, and even how institutions evolve. But they are wrong.… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
To know how scientists engage in visual imagery is to understand how they think creatively. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I think that's my nature, to want to bring people together rather than to try to bombard them into agreement. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The cost of scientific advance is the humbling recognition that reality was not constructed to be easily grasped by the human mind.… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
We don't know nearly enough about the complexities of Nature. If we think we can eliminate natural ecosystems and substitute prosthetic devices,… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Human beings function better if they are deceived by their genes into thinking that there is a disinterested objective morality binding upon… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I think we will make it. Because one quality people have - certainly Americans have it - is that they can adapt… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
That's the way to get young people. Once they see there are wonderful things to hunt for, to rediscover a species that… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
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… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The commitment must be much deeper - to let no species knowingly die; to take all reasonable action to protect every species and race… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Science is not marginal. Like art, it is a universal possession of humanity, and scientific knowledge has become a vital part of our species'… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
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… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
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… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The extinctions ongoing worldwide promise to be at least as great as the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the age of… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image