EVOLUTION QUOTES III

quotations about evolution

One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

CHARLES DARWIN

On the Origin of the Species


A curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it.

JACQUES MONOD

On the Molecular Theory of Evolution


Evolution's always hard. Hard and bleak. No such thing as happy evolution.

HARUKI MURAKAMI

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World


Man has lost the basic skill of the ape, the ability to scratch its back. Which gave it extraordinary independence, and the liberty to associate for reasons other than the need for mutual back-scratching.

JEAN BAUDRILLARD

Cool Memories


As you evolve, you will make a lot of people uncomfortable. Evolve anyway.

ANONYMOUS


Perhaps our greatest distinction as a species is our capacity, unique among animals, to make counter-evolutionary choices.

JARED DIAMOND

Why Is Sex Fun?


Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous.

BARBARA EHRENREICH

The Worst Years of Our Lives


Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.

RICHARD DAWKINS

The Greatest Show on Earth


Evolution is a tinkerer.

FRANCOIS JACOB

"Evolution and Tinkering"


All life is evolving, for evolution is God's law; and man grows slowly and steadily along with the rest.

C. W. LEADBEATER

The Science of the Sacraments


It is curious how there seems to be an instinctive digust in Man for his nearest ancestors and relations. If only Darwin could conscientiously have traced man back to the Elephant or the Lion or the Antelope, how much ridicule and prejudice would have been spared to the doctrine of Evolution.

HAVELOCK ELLIS

Impressions and Comments


One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Back to Methuselah


Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible - though very unlikely - that our whole world is controlled by elves.

JERRY A. COYNE

Why Evolution Is True


Evolution is like walking on a rolling barrel. The walker isn't so much interested in where the barrel is going as he is in keeping on top of it.

ROBERT FROST

The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer


Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.

MICHAEL CRICHTON

The Lost World


If it is true that we have sprung from the ape, there are occasions when my own spring appears not to have been very far.

CORNELIA OTIS SKINNER

The Ape in Me


Evolution is not a religious tenet, to which one swears allegiance or belief as a matter of faith. It is a factual reality of the empirical world. Just as one would not say "I believe in gravity," one should not proclaim "I believe in evolution."

MICHAEL SHERMER

Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design


Of course, like every other man of intelligence and education I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.

WOODROW WILSON

letter to Winterton C. Curtis, Aug. 29, 1922


As a historical science, evolution is confirmed by the fact that so many independent lines of evidence converge to its single conclusion. Independent sets of data from geology, paleontology, botany, zoology, herpetology, entomology, biogeography, comparative anatomy and physiology, genetics and population genetics, and many other sciences each point to the conclusion that life evolved. This is a convergence of evidence. Creationists can demand "just one fossil transitional form" that shows evolution. But evolution is not proved through a single fossil. It is proved through a convergence of fossils, along with a convergence of genetic comparisons between species, and a convergence of anatomical and physiological comparisons between species, and many other lines of inquiry. For creationists to disprove evolution, they need to unravel all these independent lines of evidence, as well as construct a rival theory that can explain them better than the theory of evolution. They have yet to do so.

MICHAEL SHERMER

Why Darwin Matters


Evolution is a change from an indefinite, incoherent, homogeneity to a definite, coherent, heterogeneity, through continuous differentiations and integrations.

HERBERT SPENCER

First Principles