American - Scientist | June 10, 1929 -
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.
E. O. Wilson
PurposePeopleFindAliveWillWay
Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
ScienceMindPoliticalCorrupt
Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.
FaithScienceBlindTestMatterHow
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.
RainPlantsOverTropicalHistorical
If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
PassionTruthScienceHistoryDesire
Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.
IdeasWorldRealOwnPartEmerge
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.
ReligionProblemsCreateWaySee
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.
TimeColleaguesAltruismTwoHarvard
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.
GrowthWinEndBetterFairnessTry
People respect nonfiction but they read novels.
RespectPeopleNonfictionRead
The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.
WorldEnergyBecausePlayersCycling
All three of the Abrahamic religions were born and nurtured in arid, disturbed environments.
BornThreeReligionsDisturbedWere
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