Quotes About Evolution

es que a falta de animales domésticos en que descargar el peso de la animalidad de la vida habría el hombre llegado a su humanidad?

We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past.

Los hombres se hacen, las montañas están hechas ya

Todas as éticas são evolutivas: o que hoje é normal, amanhã será horrendo e o que hoje é crime, amanhã será banal.

Não há regresso. Há viagens sem regresso nem repetição.

We cannot deny the facts of nature, but we should certainly try to improve on them.

Such practices and beliefs, which interfere with happiness, are neither inevitable nor necessary; they evolved by chance, as a result of random responses to accidental conditions. But once they become part of the norms and habits of a culture, people assume that this is how things must be; they come to believe they have no other options.

As J. S. Mill wrote, "No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.

One cannot enjoy doing the same thing at the same level for long. We grow either bored or frustrated; and then the desire to enjoy ourselves again pushes us to stretch our skills, or discover new opportunities for using them.

Teenagers, who swing from one threat to their fragile evolving personhood to another in quick succession throughout the day, especially depend on the soothing patterns of sound to restore order in their consciousness. But so do many adults. One

The optimists claim that through the course of evolution the nervous system has become adept at "chunking" bits of information so that processing capacity is constantly expanded. Simple functions like adding a column of numbers or driving a car grow to be automated, leaving the mind free to deal with more data. We

consciousness has developed the ability to override its genetic instructions and to set its own independent course of action.

It is important to realize that seeking pleasure is a reflex response built into our genes for the preservation of the species, not for the purpose of our own personal advantage.

Almost every situation we encounter in life presents possibilities for growth.

Compared to people living only a few generations ago, we have enormously greater opportunities to have a good time, yet there is no indication that we actually enjoy life more than our ancestors did. Opportunities alone, however, are not enough. We also need the skills to make use of them.

of the Zen masters might have been excellent in their own time—and might still be the best, if

Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it's dead. But we're allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures.

Variety and frequency of sexual encounters have taken precedence over the depth and intensity of the relationship in which they are embedded. It is ironic that on this issue the traditional teachings of the churches are closer to a scientific position than the up-to-date beliefs of the populace, for an evolutionary approach confirms that the original purpose of sexuality is making children and binding the parental couple.

Another force motivates us, and it is more primitive and more powerful than the urge to create: the force of entropy. This too is a survival mechanism built into our genes by evolution. It gives us pleasure when we are comfortable, when we relax, when we can get away with feeling good without expending energy.

The conventional explanation is that Raphael, Mendel, and Bach were always creative, only their reputation changed with the vagaries of social recognition. But the systems model recognizes the fact that creativity cannot be separated from its recognition. Mendel was not creative during his years of relative obscurity because his experimental findings were not that important until a group of British geneticists, at the end of the nineteenth century, recognized their implications for evolution.

Will you ever be anything more than a vessel transmitting the genes and memes of previous generations on to the next?

Given that (a) early feminists were steadfastly opposed to censorship and abortion, and (b) modern feminists are steadfastly committed to censorship and abortion, is it fair to say the feminist movement has lost its way? In other words, Diane, why can't you be more like Susan B. Anthony?

Now we can travel with more books stored in our telephones than the ancient Egyptians kept in their vast library at Alexandria.

There's always room to be someone else, and there's always somewhere people will be willing to let the past slide." He