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" By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified. "
E. O. Wilson
Faith
Measure
Science
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" 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. "
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" 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
Me
Learning
World
" I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it. "
E. O. Wilson
People
Thinking
Love
" I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and fully aware of themselves. "
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Religion
Create
Problems
" The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way to erase the dilemma, to resolve the contradictions between the transcendentalist and the empiricist world views? "
E. O. Wilson
Way
World
Spiritual
" Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view. "
E. O. Wilson
View
Start
Human
" The ant world is a tumult, a noisy world of pheromones being passed back and forth. "
E. O. Wilson
Forth
World
Noisy
" I've found that good dialogue tells you not only what people are saying or how they're communicating but it tells you a great deal - by dialect and tone, content and circumstance - about the quality of the character. "
E. O. Wilson
Character
Good
Great
" If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months. "
E. O. Wilson
Rest
Life
Land
" The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology. "
E. O. Wilson
Evolve
Believe
Biology
" We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories. "
E. O. Wilson
Differences
Stories
People
" Because the living environment is what really sustains us. "
E. O. Wilson
Really
Because
Environment
" One thing I did was grow up as an ardent naturalist. I never grew out of my bug period. "
E. O. Wilson
Bug
Grow
Grow Up
" Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions. "
E. O. Wilson
Religious
Religions
Belief
" I thought perhaps it should be recognized that religious people, including fundamentalists, are quite intelligent, many of them are highly educated, and they should be treated with complete respect. "
E. O. Wilson
Respect
Thought
Intelligent
" 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
" 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. "
E. O. Wilson
Back
Chaos
Environmental
" Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company, willing to try to get a better atmosphere through a demonstration of democratic principles, fairness and cooperation, a better product, those will win in the end. "
E. O. Wilson
Try
Fairness
Growth
" We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity. "
E. O. Wilson
Humanity
Understand
Come
" It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt. "
E. O. Wilson
Humanity
Life
People
" Once I feel I'm right, I have enjoyed provoking. "
E. O. Wilson
Right
Once
I Feel
" The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist or Islam or any religion that believes in a supernatural supervalance over humanity. "
E. O. Wilson
Religion
Perception
Life
" Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God? "
E. O. Wilson
Important
God
Thoughts
" It's always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That's just in human relationships. "
E. O. Wilson
People
Value
Survival
" Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them. "
E. O. Wilson
Life
Rest
Ants
" Even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart. "
E. O. Wilson
Mind
Heart
Even
" 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
Me
Tell
Ants
" Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society. "
E. O. Wilson
Society
Group
Results
" The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world. "
E. O. Wilson
Players
Energy
Cycling
" What we need is an electronic encyclopedia of life, with one page for each species. On each page is given everything known about that species. "
E. O. Wilson
Page
Need
Everything