Over 40,000 Famous Quotes Sorted By Topic and Author

...democracy can be interpreted to assert not only equality before the law but also essentialistic identity in all respects. This is expressed in the claim, "All men are created equal," which is something very different from the statement, "All men have equal rights and are equal before the law." Anyone who believes in the genetic uniqueness of every individual thereby believes in the conclusion, "No two individuals are created equal.".

To take an unequivocal stand, it seems to me, is of greater heuristic value and far more likely to stimulate constructive criticism than to evade the issue.

...definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows.

The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory but simply failed to ask the right questions.

Every politician, clergyman, educator, or physician, in short, anyone dealing with human individuals, is bound to make grave mistakes if he ignores these two great truths of population zoology: no two individuals are alike, and both environment and genetic endowment make a contribution to nearly every trait.

...most scientific problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic.

Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun.

...anyone who writes about "Darwin's theory of evolution" in the singular, without segregating the theories of gradual evolution, common descent, speciation, and the mechanism of natural selection, will be quite unable to discuss the subject competently.

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.

Scientific progress consists in the development of new concepts.

Life is simply the reification of the process of living.