Stephen Jay Gould

"We inherit wisdom from every ancestor in our lineage."

"Change is gradual or sudden, but it is always occurring."

"The study of nature requires both humility and wonder."

"Life's achievements are remarkable given the forces that shape them."

"We are custodians of the future of life on Earth."

"Science offers our best method for understanding nature."

"The elegance of evolution lies in its explanatory power."

"Our place in nature is neither at the top nor at the bottom."

"The study of life teaches us about possibility and constraint."

"We must respect nature even as we study it."

"Evolution is the foundation of all biological understanding."

"The history of life is full of surprises for those who study it carefully."

"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediate forms in the local area is not evidence for absence - absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

"We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures."

"Evolution is a process of constant branching and expansion."

"I would rather be the first to know the truth than to remain in ignorance."

"Contingency is a thing unto itself, not merely the absence of determinism."

"Species are not defined by sharp boundaries but by the continuity of genetic material through time."

"The human species has evolved to be fascinated by stories, patterns, and explanations."

"Science is not a collection of laws, a catechism of unbreakable rules."

"We pass through this world but once; few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life."

"Punctuated equilibrium suggests that stability is the norm, not the exception."

"Evolution is a process blind to morality; nature has no purpose except continuation."

"The great interruption of life's diversity demands explanation, not assumption."

"Adaptation is only beneficial in the context of an organism's immediate environment."

"If humanity does not explicitly remember and honor the past, we are condemned to repeat it."

"The more we know about variation within human populations, the less support we find for biological racism."

"Wonderful life: the Burgess Shale and the nature of history teaches us that contingency shapes all existence."

"We are products of natural history, not its purpose."

"Cancer is a disease of altered growth control, not a failure of nature but a complexity of nature."