Stephen Jay Gould Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.”

“Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.”

“Creationist critics often charge that evolution cannot be tested, and therefore cannot be viewed as a properly scientific subject at all. This claim is rhetorical nonsense.”

“Goethe died in 1832. As you know, Goethe was very active in science. In fact, he did some very good scientific work in plant morphology and mineralogy. But he was quite bitter at the way in which many scientists refused to grant him a hearing because he was a poet and therefore, they felt, he couldn't be serious.”

“I love the wry motto of the Paleontological Society, meant both literally and figuratively, for hammers are the main tool of our trade: Frango ut patefaciam - I break in order to reveal.”

“Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences.”

“Contrary to current cynicism about past golden ages, the abstraction known as 'the intelligent layperson' does exist - in the form of millions of folks with a passionate commitment to continuous learning.”

“My own field of paleontology has strongly challenged the Darwinian premise that life's major transformations can be explained by adding up, through the immensity of geological time, the successive tiny changes produced generation after generation by natural selection.”

“If I don't make it, I'll be very sad that there are things I didn't do, but I'm happy that I've done what I have.”

“All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence... I had to place myself amidst the variation.”