395 Quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

Surely the mitochondrion that first entered another cell was not thinking about the future benefits of cooperation and integration; it was merely trying to make its own living in a tough Darwinian world.

Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview – nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.

Science is all those things which are confirmed to such a degree that it would be unreasonable to withhold one’s provisional consent.

Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism – and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.

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

What’s important is that all human knowledge be made available to all intelligent people who want to learn it.

The enemy is not fundamentalism; it is intolerance. In this case, the intolerance is perverse since it masquerades under the “liberal” rhetoric of “equal time.” But mistake it not.

If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

In science, ‘fact’ can only mean ‘confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.’ I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.