Richard Dawkins Quotes

I am one of those scientists who feels that it is no longer enough just to get on and do science. We have to devote a significant proportion of our time and resources to defending it from deliberate attack from organised ignorance.
Richard Dawkins

Time, Science, Ignorance

The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.
Richard Dawkins

Natural, Existence, Theory

The enlightenment is under threat. So is reason. So is truth. So is science, especially in the schools of America.
Richard Dawkins

Truth, Science, America

Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private 'revelation'.
Richard Dawkins

Book, Ignore, Off

The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
Richard Dawkins

Life, Justice, Nothing

Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.
Richard Dawkins

Nature, Simple, Difficult

When I say that human beings are just gene machines, one shouldn't put too much emphasis on the word 'just.' There is a very great deal of complication, and indeed beauty in being a gene machine.
Richard Dawkins

Beauty, Great, Human

I love romantic poetry.
Richard Dawkins

Love, Poetry, Romantic

I suppose if you look back to your early childhood you accept everything people tell you, and that includes a heavy dose of irrationality - you're told about tooth fairies and Father Christmas and things.
Richard Dawkins

Christmas, Father, Everything

The universe doesn't owe us condolence or consolation; it doesn't owe us a nice warm feeling inside.
Richard Dawkins

Nice, Feeling, Universe

We are a very, very unusual species.
Richard Dawkins

Unusual, Species

The idea of an afterlife where you can be reunited with loved ones can be immensely consoling - though not to me.
Richard Dawkins

Idea, Loved, Though

The question of whether there exists a supernatural creator, a God, is one of the most important that we have to answer. I think that it is a scientific question. My answer is no.
Richard Dawkins

God, Important, Question

If ever there was a slamming of the door in the face of constructive investigation, it is the word miracle. To a medieval peasant, a radio would have seemed like a miracle.
Richard Dawkins

Door, Word, Face

Design can never be an ultimate explanation for anything. It can only be a proximate explanation. A plane or a car is explained by a designer but that's because the designer himself, the engineer, is explained by natural selection.
Richard Dawkins

Design, Car, Himself

Natural selection is anything but random.
Richard Dawkins

Natural, Random, Selection

Of course in science there are things that are open to doubt and things need to be discussed. But among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know.
Richard Dawkins

Science, Doubt, Open

What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has 'theology' ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?
Richard Dawkins

True, Said, Makes

I once wrote that anybody who believes the world is only 6,000 years old is either ignorant, stupid, insane or wicked.
Richard Dawkins

Stupid, Old, Once

Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence.
Richard Dawkins

Life, Age, Reason

I accept that there may be things far grander and more incomprehensible than we can possibly imagine.
Richard Dawkins

May, Far, Accept

But perhaps the rest of us could have separate classes in science appreciation, the wonder of science, scientific ways of thinking, and the history of scientific ideas, rather than laboratory experience.
Richard Dawkins

History, Experience, Science

God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture.
Richard Dawkins

God, Power, Human

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.
Richard Dawkins

Free, Idea, Biology

I do disapprove very strongly of labelling children, especially young children, as something like 'Catholic children' or 'Protestant children' or 'Islamic children.'
Richard Dawkins

Children, Young, Islamic

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Biography

Nationality: English

Type: Scientist

Born: March 26, 1941

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