"Man has risen, not fallen. He can choose……" — George Gaylord Simpson
"Man has risen, not fallen. He can choose to develop his capacities as the highest animal and to try to rise still farther, or he can choose otherwise. The choice is his responsibility, and his alone. There is no automatism that will carry him upward without choice or effort and there is no trend solely in the right direction. Evolution has no purpose; man must supply this for himself. The means to gaining right ends involve both organic evolution and human evolution, but human choice as to what are the right ends must be based on human evolution."
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George Gaylord Simpson
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29 Quotes by George Gaylord Simpson
George Gaylord Simpson has 29 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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The meaning that we are seeking in evolution is its meaning to us, to man. The ethics of evolution must…
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If a sect does officially insist that its structure of belief demands that evolution be false, then no compromise is…
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It remains true, as every paleontologist knows, that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above…
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I have a debt, a loyalty to the museum; the best place for me to do what I wanted to…
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It is inherent in any definition of science that statements that cannot be checked by observation are not really saying…
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The search for historical laws is, I maintain, mistaken in principle.
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The science of systematics has long been affected by profound philosophical preconceptions, which have been all the more influential for…
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To put it crudely but graphically, the monkey who did not have a realistic perception of the tree branch he…
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Human judgment is notoriously fallible and perhaps seldom more so than in facile decisions that a character has no adaptive…
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Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind
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Species evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world, and not at all…
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The fact -- not theory -- that evolution has occurred and the Darwinian theory as to how it occurred have…
See all 29 quotes by George Gaylord Simpson »
More Alone Quotes
This quote is filed under Alone Quotes,
one of 10,353 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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I try to push ideas away, and the ones that will not leave me alone are the ones that ultimately…
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There's love, and certainly children you care about more than yourself. But nevertheless, we're alone in our heads.
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India is the meeting place of the religions and among these Hinduism alone is by itself a vast and complex…
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Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her…
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I hate cameras. They interfere, they're always in the way. I wish: if I could work with my eyes alone.
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Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to…
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While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward,…
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The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be…
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The average Nigerian person has come to reconcile himself with the fact that his or her social progress remain essentially…
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In today's interdependent world, a threat to one becomes a menace to all. And no state can defeat these challenges…
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We neither laugh alone, nor weep alone, why then should we pray alone?
— Anna Letitia Barbauld
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