“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.”
Hope
“In my heart, I'm an Alabaman who went up north to work.”
WorkAll Quotes by E. O. Wilson
“I was a senior in high school when I decided I wanted to work on ants as a career. I just fell in love with them, and have never regretted it.”
Work“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.”
Alone“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.”
Learning“For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization.”
Faith“People respect nonfiction but they read novels.”
Respect“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?”
Truth“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.”
Music“The education of women is the best way to save the environment.”
Best“Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.”
Religion“The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans.”
Work“True character arises from a deeper well than religion.”
Religion“Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.”
Science“Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength.”
Strength“Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.”
Society“In my heart, I'm an Alabaman who went up north to work.”
Work“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.”
Religion“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.”
Alone“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”
Time“A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.”
Environmental