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Stephen Jay Gould Quotes

God was there when it happened. We were not there.... Therefore, we are completely limited to what God has seen fit to tell us, and this information is in His written Word Picture Quote #1

Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups Picture Quote #1

If I have any insight at all to contribute it is this: find out what you are really good at and stick to it Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

Honorable errors do not count as failures in science, but as seeds for progress in the quintessential activity of correction Picture Quote #1

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All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence... I had to place myself amidst the variation Picture Quote #1

Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences Picture Quote #1

I dreamed of becoming a scientist, in general, and a paleontologist, in particular, ever since the Tyrannosaurus skeleton awed and scared me Picture Quote #1

Everything comes to us in fifteen-second sound bites and photo opportunities. All possibility for ambiguity - the most precious trait of any adequate analysis - is erased Picture Quote #1

The history of life is a tale of decimation and later stabilization of few surviving anatomies, not a story of steady expansion and progress Picture Quote #1

We must shed the old stereotype of anarchists as bearded bomb throwers furtively stalking about city streets at night Picture Quote #1

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All organisms vary, and it’s just folk knowledge. You just have to look around a room of people, and everybody knows that it’s true. Darwin didn’t know the mechanism of heredity, but you don’t have to. You just need to know the fact of it Picture Quote #1

Fundamentalism is rigorously and systematically used to indoctrinate and subjugate young minds. It is a contraceptive designed to prevent intellectual fertilization Picture Quote #1

No rational order of divine intelligence unites species. The natural ties are genealogical along contingent pathways of history Picture Quote #1

The only universal attribute of scientific statements resides in their potential fallibility. If a claim cannot be disproven, it does not belong to the enterprise of science Picture Quote #1

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos Picture Quote #1

We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction Picture Quote #1

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The legends of fieldwork locate all important sites deep in inaccessible jungles inhabited by fierce beasts and restless natives, and surrounded by miasmas of putrefaction and swarms of tsetse flies Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

People talk about human intelligence as the greatest adaptation in the history of the planet. It is an amazing and marvelous thing, but in evolutionary terms, it is as likely to do us in as to help us along Picture Quote #1

Life is short, and potential studies infinite. We have a much better chance of accomplishing something significant when we follow our passionate interests and work in areas of deepest personal meaning Picture Quote #1

Humans arose... as a fortuitous and contingent outcome of thousands of linked events, any one of which could have occurred differently and sent history on an alternative pathway that would not have led to consciousness Picture Quote #1

Recapitulation provided a convenient focus for the persuasive racism of white scientists; they looked to the activities of their own children for comparison with normal adult behavior in lower races Picture Quote #1

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Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life’s pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways Picture Quote #1

I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms Picture Quote #1

I strongly reject any conceptual scheme that places our options on a line, and holds that the only alternative to a pair of extreme positions lies somewhere between them. More fruitful perspectives often require that we step off the line to a site outside the dichotomy Picture Quote #1

Scientists have power by virtue of the respect commanded by the discipline... We live with poets and politicians, preachers and philosophers. All have their ways of knowing, and all are valid in their proper domain. The world is too complex and interesting for one way to hold all the answers Picture Quote #1

Still, our creationist incubi, who would never let facts spoil a favorite argument, refuse to yield, and continue to assert the absence of all transitional forms by ignoring those that have been found, and continuing to taunt us with admittedly frequent examples of absence Picture Quote #1

The myriad valleys could have arisen anywhere on the landscape. The current positions are quite accidental. If we could repeat the experiment, we might obtain no valleys at all, or a completely different system. Yet we now stand at the shore line contemplating the fine spacing of valleys and their even contact with the sea. How easy it is to be misled and to assume that no other landscape could possibly have arisen Picture Quote #1

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God was there when it happened. We were not there.... Therefore, we are completely limited to what God has seen fit to tell us, and this information is in His written Word (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) 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 (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) If I have any insight at all to contribute it is this: find out what you are really good at and stick to it (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) 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 (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Honorable errors do not count as failures in science, but as seeds for progress in the quintessential activity of correction (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence... I had to place myself amidst the variation (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) I dreamed of becoming a scientist, in general, and a paleontologist, in particular, ever since the Tyrannosaurus skeleton awed and scared me (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Everything comes to us in fifteen-second sound bites and photo opportunities. All possibility for ambiguity - the most precious trait of any adequate analysis - is erased (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) The history of life is a tale of decimation and later stabilization of few surviving anatomies, not a story of steady expansion and progress (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) We must shed the old stereotype of anarchists as bearded bomb throwers furtively stalking about city streets at night (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) All organisms vary, and it’s just folk knowledge. You just have to look around a room of people, and everybody knows that it’s true. Darwin didn’t know the mechanism of heredity, but you don’t have to. You just need to know the fact of it (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Fundamentalism is rigorously and systematically used to indoctrinate and subjugate young minds. It is a contraceptive designed to prevent intellectual fertilization (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) No rational order of divine intelligence unites species. The natural ties are genealogical along contingent pathways of history (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) The only universal attribute of scientific statements resides in their potential fallibility. If a claim cannot be disproven, it does not belong to the enterprise of science (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) The legends of fieldwork locate all important sites deep in inaccessible jungles inhabited by fierce beasts and restless natives, and surrounded by miasmas of putrefaction and swarms of tsetse flies (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) 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 (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) People talk about human intelligence as the greatest adaptation in the history of the planet. It is an amazing and marvelous thing, but in evolutionary terms, it is as likely to do us in as to help us along (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Life is short, and potential studies infinite. We have a much better chance of accomplishing something significant when we follow our passionate interests and work in areas of deepest personal meaning (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Humans arose... as a fortuitous and contingent outcome of thousands of linked events, any one of which could have occurred differently and sent history on an alternative pathway that would not have led to consciousness (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Recapitulation provided a convenient focus for the persuasive racism of white scientists; they looked to the activities of their own children for comparison with normal adult behavior in lower races (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life’s pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) I strongly reject any conceptual scheme that places our options on a line, and holds that the only alternative to a pair of extreme positions lies somewhere between them. More fruitful perspectives often require that we step off the line to a site outside the dichotomy (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Scientists have power by virtue of the respect commanded by the discipline... We live with poets and politicians, preachers and philosophers. All have their ways of knowing, and all are valid in their proper domain. The world is too complex and interesting for one way to hold all the answers (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) Still, our creationist incubi, who would never let facts spoil a favorite argument, refuse to yield, and continue to assert the absence of all transitional forms by ignoring those that have been found, and continuing to taunt us with admittedly frequent examples of absence (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes) The myriad valleys could have arisen anywhere on the landscape. The current positions are quite accidental. If we could repeat the experiment, we might obtain no valleys at all, or a completely different system. Yet we now stand at the shore line contemplating the fine spacing of valleys and their even contact with the sea. How easy it is to be misled and to assume that no other landscape could possibly have arisen (Stephen Jay Gould Quotes)

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