Extinction Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

“Life is a copiously branching bush, continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction, not a ladder of predictable progress.”

Stephen Jay Gould

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Extinction Grim Grim reaper Ladders Life Life is Predictable Progress Reaper Science

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I strongly reject any conceptual scheme that places our options on a line, and holds that the only alternative to a pair of extreme…

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History employs evolution to structure biological events in time.

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In his anti-Darwinian book... (and eponymously named The Neck of the Giraffe ), Francis Hitching tells the story... "The need to survive by reaching…

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... many folks take them seriously because they just 'know' that evolution can never be seen in the immediate here and now. In fact,…

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Charles Darwin viewed the fossil record more as an embarrassment than as an aid to his theory ...

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Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower"…

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The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

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The true beauty of nature is her amplitude; she exists neither for nor because of us, and possesses a staying power that all our…

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With copious evidence ranging from Plato's haughtiness to Beethoven's tirades, we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a…

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When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably)…

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The truly awesome intellectuals in our history have not merely made discoveries; they have woven variegated, but firm, tapestries of comprehensive coverage. The tapestries…

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I believe that we can still have a genre of scientific books suitable for and accessible alike to professionals and interested laypeople. The concepts…

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Explore all 341 Stephen Jay Gould quotes

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