Overall, the human brain is the most complex object known in the universe - known, that is, to itself. — E. O. Wilson Brain Copy Share Image
To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse us and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong. — E. O. Wilson Doors Copy Share Image
Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive. — E. O. Wilson Force Copy Share Image
I want us to save the creation-not just care about it, but to save it. — E. O. Wilson Care Copy Share Image
I like what Abba Eban once said during the 1967 war. He said, "When all else fails, men turn to reason." — E. O. Wilson Failing Copy Share Image
The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans. — E. O. Wilson Affected Copy Share Image
The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world. — E. O. Wilson Around the world Copy Share Image
The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper — E. O. Wilson Bookkeepers Copy Share Image
Progress, then, is a property of the evolution of life as a whole by almost any conceivable intuitive standard… let us not… — E. O. Wilson Being true 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
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 Air 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… — E. O. Wilson Beats Copy Share Image
Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society. — E. O. Wilson Altruism Copy Share Image
People yearn to be in one of the best--a combat marine regiment, an elite college, the executive committee of a company, a… — E. O. Wilson Clubs Copy Share Image
The closer the genetic relationship of the family members, as for example father-to-son, as opposed to uncle-to-nephew, the higher the degree of… — E. O. Wilson Cooperation 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… — E. O. Wilson Biosphere Copy Share Image
That's what the best global conservation organisations and the American government (and other environmentally inclined governments, such as Sweden and the Netherlands)… — E. O. Wilson American government 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
[P]rescientific people... could never guess the nature of physical reality beyond the tiny sphere attainable by unaided common sense. Nothing else ever… — E. O. Wilson Art Copy Share Image
There are millions and millions of species, including organisms most people have never heard of. There is so much that waits to… — E. O. Wilson Bacteria 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… — E. O. Wilson Appreciate Copy Share Image
The students of biodiversity, the ones we most need in science today, have an enormous task ahead of molecular biology and the… — E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Copy Share Image
By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified. Today the greatest divide within humanity… — E. O. Wilson Achievement 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
In science, obsessiveness under psychological control can be a virtue. — E. O. Wilson Psychological Copy Share Image
Destroying a tropical rainforest for profit is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner. — E. O. Wilson Burning Copy Share Image
Be prepared mentally for some amount of chaos and failure. Waste and frustration often attend the earliest stages. — E. O. Wilson Amount Copy Share Image
It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer. — E. O. Wilson Books Copy Share Image
Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans. — E. O. Wilson Ants Copy Share Image
The true evolutionary epic, retold as poetry, is as intrinsically ennobling as any religious epic. — E. O. Wilson Epic Copy Share Image
What's been gratifying is to live long enough to see molecular biology and evolutionary biology growing toward each other and uniting in… — E. O. Wilson Biology Copy Share Image
An individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being's, can learn a… — E. O. Wilson Ants Copy Share Image
If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear… — E. O. Wilson Disappear Copy Share Image
We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories. — E. O. Wilson Conflict Copy Share Image
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 Degradation Copy Share Image
The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way… — E. O. Wilson Accepting 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… — E. O. Wilson Adventure Copy Share Image
Every kid has a bug period, I like to say, and I just got so fascinated and I had that experience, that… — E. O. Wilson Able Copy Share Image
Ants are the dominant insects of the world, and they've had a great impact on habitats almost all over the land surface… — E. O. Wilson Ants Copy Share Image
The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity… — E. O. Wilson Conservation Copy Share Image
![“[P]rescientific people... could never guess the nature of physical reality beyond the tiny sphere attainable by unaided common sense. Nothing else ever worked, no exercise from myth, revelation, art, trance, or any other conceivable means; and notwithstanding the emotional satisfaction it gives…” quote by E. O. Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0d0/e-o-wilson-1348_art_p-rescientific-people-could-never-guess_717283.jpg)
![“I think history has shown that the worst way to [try to] bring people over and actually change public opinion is by insult and applied degradation of them.” quote by E. O. Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/4a1/e-o-wilson-1348_degradation_i-think-history-has-shown-that-the-worst_257290.jpg)
