We are not afraid of predators, we're transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because… — E. O. Wilson Chatter Copy Share Image
In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism… — E. O. Wilson Altruism Copy Share Image
It's always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That's just in human relationships. — E. O. Wilson Believe Copy Share Image
Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input. — E. O. Wilson Brain Copy Share Image
The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. — E. O. Wilson Earth Copy Share Image
The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of… — E. O. Wilson 21st century Copy Share Image
The naturalist is a civilized hunter. He goes alone into the field or woodland and closes his mind to everything but that… — E. O. Wilson Civilized Copy Share Image
The search for knowledge is in our genes. It was put there by our distant ancestors who spread across the world, and… — E. O. Wilson Ancestor Copy Share Image
I grew up as a Southern Baptist with strict adherence to the Bible, which I read as a youngster. — E. O. Wilson Adherence Copy Share Image
On the lawn next to the sidewalk a fire ant colony is swarming. The ants are pouring out of a mound nest,… — E. O. Wilson Angry Copy Share Image
The time has come to link ecology to economic and human development. When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree,… — E. O. Wilson Ants Copy Share Image
If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving little or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion… — E. O. Wilson Acres Copy Share Image
Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal. — E. O. Wilson Burning Copy Share Image
We use pandas and eagles and things. I'd love to see a wilderness society with an angry-looking wolverine as their logo. — E. O. Wilson Angry Copy Share Image
Biology is a science of three dimensions. The first is the study of each species across all levels of biological organization, molecule… — E. O. Wilson Biology Copy Share Image
For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization. — E. O. Wilson Faith Copy Share Image
Every native species, however humble in appearance...has its place in the nation's heritage. It is a masterpiece of evolution, an ancient, multifaceted… — E. O. Wilson Ancient Copy Share Image
I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to… — E. O. Wilson Asking Copy Share Image
Biodiversity is the totality of all inherited variation in the life forms of Earth, of which we are one species. We study… — E. O. Wilson Benefits Copy Share Image
The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper — E. O. Wilson Bookkeepers Copy Share Image
Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength. — E. O. Wilson Belief Copy Share Image
Darwin's dice have rolled badly for Earth. The human species is, in a word, an environmental abnormality. Perhaps a law of evolution… — E. O. Wilson Abnormal Copy Share Image
I thought perhaps it should be recognized that religious people, including fundamentalists, are quite intelligent, many of them are highly educated, and… — E. O. Wilson Educated Copy Share Image
In a purely technical sense, each species of higher organism-beetle, moss, and so forth, is richer in information than a Caravaggio painting,… — E. O. Wilson Art Copy Share Image
