E. O. Wilson Quotes

You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
E. O. Wilson

Failure, Best, Alone

The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way to erase the dilemma, to resolve the contradictions between the transcendentalist and the empiricist world views?
E. O. Wilson

Truth, Spiritual, Humanity

If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.
E. O. Wilson

Rich, State, Chaos

Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
E. O. Wilson

Painting, Economic, Gain

If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.
E. O. Wilson

Alone, Failure, Successful

We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.
E. O. Wilson

Time, Wisdom, Important

Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
E. O. Wilson

Nature, Spiritual, Key

Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.
E. O. Wilson

Great, Blessed, Debt

Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.
E. O. Wilson

Selfish, Win, Between

Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.
E. O. Wilson

Religion, Today, Struggle

Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
E. O. Wilson

Science, Mind, Political

When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.
E. O. Wilson

Bird, Seen, Tree

Every kid has a bug period... I never grew out of mine.
E. O. Wilson

Kid, Mine, Period

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.
E. O. Wilson

Faith, Science, Human

Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.
E. O. Wilson

Social, Earth, Next

By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.
E. O. Wilson

Faith, Science, Reasonable

I tend to believe that religious dogma is a consequence of evolution.
E. O. Wilson

Religious, Evolution, Dogma

We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.
E. O. Wilson

Humanity, Understand, Learn

Secular humanists can sit around and talk about their love of humanity, but it doesn't stack up against a two-millennium-old funeral high mass.
E. O. Wilson

Love, Humanity, Around

Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong.
E. O. Wilson

Sometimes, Wrong, Profound

The education of women is the best way to save the environment.
E. O. Wilson

Education, Women, Best

Even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart.
E. O. Wilson

Mind, Heart, Winning

Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.
E. O. Wilson

Society, Group, Individual

The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology.
E. O. Wilson

Mind, Human, Gods

Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?
E. O. Wilson

God, Important, Thoughts

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Scientist

Born: June 10, 1929

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Cite this Page: Citation

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