395 Quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of “lower” animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.

The board transported its jurisdiction to a never-never land where a Dorothy of the new millennium might exclaim: “They still call it Kansas, but I don’t think we’re in the real world anymore.”

We are, whatever our glories and accomplishments, a momentary cosmic accident that would never arise again if the tree of life could be replanted from seed and regrown under similar conditions.

We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life’s continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.

We who revel in nature’s diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction.

Science is an integral part of culture. It’s not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It’s one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.

We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well – for we will not fight to save what we do not love.

Details are all that matters; God dwells in these and you never get to see Him if you don’t struggle to get them right.

Common sense is a very poor guide to scientific insight for it represents cultural prejudice more often than it reflects the native honesty of a small boy before the naked emperor.