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" But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity, and that being able to join in musical activity, along with dancing, could have been necessary at a very early stage of human culture. "

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" Real biologists who actually do the research will tell you that they almost never find a phenomenon, no matter how odd or irrelevant it looks when they first see it, that doesn't prove to serve a function. The outcome itself may be due to small accidents of evolution. "

E. O. Wilson

Research

Small

You

" So in my freshman year at the University of Alabama, learning the literature on evolution, what was known about it biologically, just gradually transformed me by taking me out of literalism and increasingly into a more secular, scientific view of the world. "

E. O. Wilson

Learning

World

" The education of women is the best way to save the environment. "

" An individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being's, can learn a maze; the kind we use is a simple rat maze in a laboratory. They can learn it about one-half as fast as a rat. "

" The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. "

" Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive. "

" I had reached a point in my career in which I was ready to try something new in my writing, and the idea of a novel has always been in the back of my mind. "

" I had in mind a message, although I hope it doesn't intrude too badly, persuading Americans, and especially Southerners, of the critical importance of land and our vanishing natural environment and wildlife. "

" Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition. "

" People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will find a way to keep ancestral spirits alive. "

" Once I feel I'm right, I have enjoyed provoking. "

" I grew up as a Southern Baptist with strict adherence to the Bible, which I read as a youngster. "

E. O. Wilson

Bible

Strict

" Well, let me tell you, ants are the dominant insects. They make up as much as a quarter of the biomass of all insects in the world. They are the principal predators. They're the cemetery workers. "

E. O. Wilson

Tell

Ants

" The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world. "

" Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans. "

" Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals. "

" I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it. "

" Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong. "

" We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories. "

" America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost. "

" You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give. "

" One thing I did was grow up as an ardent naturalist. I never grew out of my bug period. "

" When you get into the whole field of exploring, probably 90 percent of the kinds of organisms, plants, animals and especially microorganisms and tiny invertebrate animals are unknown. Then you realize that we live on a relatively unexplored plan. "

" All three of the Abrahamic religions were born and nurtured in arid, disturbed environments. "

" But once the ants and termites jumped the high barrier that prevents the vast variety of evolving animal groups from becoming fully social, they dominated the world. "

" Every kid has a bug period... I never grew out of mine. "

" We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there. "

" The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient biosphere. "

" We have decommissioned natural selection and must now look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become. "

" I tend to believe that religious dogma is a consequence of evolution. "