Edward Osborne Wilson
Public Library of Science photo by Jim Harrison (February 2003)
Born: 10 June 1929, Birmingham, Alabama
Biography from Wikipedia
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
E. O. Wilson quotes:
Quotes found : 31 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
Click here to find books by E. O. Wilson at Amazon.com
- Adults forget the depths of languor into which the adolescent mind descends with ease. They are prone to undervalue the mental growth that occurs during daydreaming and aimless wandering. permalink
E. O. Wilson - Biology is a science of three dimensions. The first is the study of each species across all levels of biological organization, molecule to cell to organism to population to ecosystem. The second dimension is the diversity of all species in the biosphere. The third dimension is the history of each species in turn, comprising both its genetic evolution and the environmental change that drove the evolution. Biology, by growing in all three dimensions, is progressing toward unification and will continue to do so. permalink
E. O. Wilson - "Systematics and the Future of Biology" (2005) - Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. permalink
E. O. Wilson - "Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic" (1997) - Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal. permalink
E. O. Wilson - Few will doubt that humankind has created a planet-sized problem for itself. No one wished it so, but we are the first species to become a geophysical force, altering Earth's climate, a role previously reserved for tectonics, sun flares, and glacial cycles. permalink
E. O. Wilson - Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) - God remains a viable hypothesis as the prime mover, however undefinable and untestable that conception may be. permalink
E. O. Wilson - On Human Nature (1978) - 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. permalink
E. O. Wilson - If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth. The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology. permalink
E. O. Wilson - Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) - In the process of natural selection, then, any device that can insert a higher proportion of certain genes into subsequent generations will come to characterize the species. permalink
E. O. Wilson - "The Morality of the Gene" - Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) - It may be argued that to know one kind of beetle is to know them all. But a species is not like a molecule in a cloud of molecules — it is a unique population. permalink
E. O. Wilson - "The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science" - Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985) - Known as the biosphere to scientists and as the creation to theologians, all of life together consists of a membrane around earth so thin that it cannot be seen edgewise from a satellite yet so prodigiously diverse that only a tiny fraction of species have been discovered and named. permalink
E. O. Wilson - "Vanishing Before Our Eyes" Time (26 Apr 2000) - Let us see how high we can fly before the sun melts the wax in our wings. permalink
E. O. Wilson - Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) - No one knows the diversity in the world, not even to the nearest order of magnitude.... We don't know for sure how many species there are, where they can be found or how fast they're disappearing. It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are. permalink
E. O. Wilson - No species ... possesses a purpose beyond the imperatives created by genetic history.... The human mind is a device for survival and reproduction, and reason is just one of its various techniques. permalink
E. O. Wilson - "Dilemma" - On Human Nature (1978) - Old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false. permalink
E. O. Wilson - Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)
Quotes found : 31 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
Please report any problems on this page! If you see any typos, incorrect attributions, deformed characters, or any other problem with this page, we want to fix it as soon
as possible. Please click here to report errors.
Note: Do not use titles in author searches, we don't use them, including president, senator, prime minister, king, queen, saint, pope, or doctor, or abbreviations thereof. See explanation here.
