E. O. Wilson Quotes About Survival
-
It's always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That's just in human relationships.
→ -
We are not afraid of predators, we're transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal way, we love our monsters.
→ -
No species ... possesses a purpose beyond the imperatives created by genetic history ... The human mind is a device for survival and reproduction, and reason is just one of its various techniques.
→ -
The green prehuman earth is the mystery we were chosen to solve, a guide to the birthplace of our spirit, but it is slipping away. The way back seems harder every year. If there is danger in the human trajectory, it is not so much in the survival of our own species as in the fulfillment of the ultimate irony of organic evolution: that in the instant of achieving self-understanding, through the mind of man, life has doomed its most beautiful creations. And thus humanity closes the door on its past.
→ -
Human existence may be simpler than we thought. There is no predestination, no unfathomed mystery of life. Demons and gods do not vie for our allegiance. Instead, we are self-made, independent, alone, and fragile, a biological species adapted to live in a biological world. What counts for long-term survival is intelligent self-understanding, based upon a greater independence of thought than that tolerated today even in our most advanced democratic societies.
→
Related Authors
-
Richard Lewontin Evolutionary Biologist -
Paul R. Ehrlich Population Biologist -
Ernst Mayr Biologist -
John Maynard Smith Geneticist -
Stephen Jay Gould Paleontologist -
Richard Dawkins Ethologist -
Robert Trivers Biologist -
Alfred Russel Wallace Naturalist -
James D. Watson Molecular Biologist -
Charles Darwin Naturalist -
-
Bert Holldobler Biologist -
Daniel Dennett Philosopher -
Konrad Lorenz Zoologist -
Aldo Leopold Author -
Martin Nowak Professor -
Henry David Thoreau Author -
Steven Pinker Psychologist -
David Sloan Wilson Professor -
Jared Diamond Scientist