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" People respect nonfiction but they read novels. "

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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. "

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

" If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth. "

" In my heart, I'm an Alabaman who went up north to work. "

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

" The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology. "

" 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. "

" It's always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That's just in human relationships. "

" It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer. "

" The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can. "

" In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time. "

" Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind. "

" It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere. "

" The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined. "

" The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago. "

" Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake. "

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

" 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. "

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

" Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science. "

" Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals. "

" There is no better high than discovery. "

" Even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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? "

" Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions. "

" It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are. "

" If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable. "