August Weismann

"What appears designed is in fact the product of mindless but relentless selection."

"The struggle for existence is not cruel; it is simply the condition of life."

"Evolution is both a fact of observation and a theory of mechanism."

"The smallest advantage, if heritable, can accumulate into major transformation."

"Life's diversity is the product of life's unity refracted through selection."

"Every organism alive today is the victor in an ancient and ongoing competition."

"The germ line is sacred; it carries the potential of all future generations."

"What nature selects today, history will judge tomorrow."

"Inheritance is not the passing down of qualities, but the transmission of potentials."

"Life advances not through the wisdom of individuals but through the mathematics of populations."

"The organism is a fleeting expression of eternal hereditary substance."

"To deny evolution is to deny the evidence written in every living thing."

"The continuity of life is maintained through the discreteness of inheritance."

"Selection is nature's judge, and adaptation is its verdict."

"What is alive today is alive because it successfully reproduced yesterday."

"The history of life is not progress toward a goal, but adaptation to circumstance."

"In nature, there are no second chances, only endless chances for those who adapt."

"Life is the art of making small decisions that compound across generations."

"The cell is the unit of life; the organism is the unit of evolution."

"To understand the present, study the variations that fill the world."

"Nature is profligate with variation and ruthless with selection."

"Every living thing is a proof that its ancestors found a way to survive."

"Evolution is not a ladder climbing toward perfection, but a tree branching toward adaptation."

"The struggle for existence is not metaphorical; it is the literal condition of life."

"Life persists through the perpetual renewal of forms already tried and tested."

"What cannot adapt to change cannot survive the change."

"The theory of selection is the only theory that explains both unity and diversity in life."

"In the succession of generations, we see the mechanism of all evolutionary change."

"Life is the only phenomenon that consistently improves through competition."

"To study one organism is to study all organisms, for all share common ancestry."