Science Quotes

"The scientist who seeks only to solve practical problems, and ignores the deeper truth, is no scientist at all."

"Faced with the revolution in modern physics, men of science have tried to restore confidence and equilibrium by declaring that the new laws of nature are also deterministic."

"The discovery of a fundamental principle is often preceded by a period of confusion and uncertainty."

"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."

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

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

"Fossils are the only direct evidence of the history of life; everything else is inference."

"The Spandrels of San Marco reminds us that not all features arise through direct selection."

"Gould's theory of punctuated equilibrium shows evolution is not always gradual."

"The fact of evolution is as certain as gravity; the mechanism is what science debates."

"The standard panda's thumb shows how evolution works with existing materials."

"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny is a false principle but a productive metaphor."

"The diversity of life is not explained by the diversity of environments alone."

"Evolution proceeds by differential survival, not by the design of a creator."

"The great strength of natural selection is its simplicity and its universal applicability."

"Species boundaries are human constructs, but speciation is a natural process."

"Evolution by natural selection is not random; the filter of selection is nonrandom."

"The randomness of mutation and the nonrandomness of selection create the appearance of design."

"Gould's view held that macroevolution cannot be simply extrapolated from microevolution."

"The presence of vestigial structures is powerful evidence for the common descent of species."

"Evolution explains life's diversity but not the origin of life itself."

"The theory of evolution is not about progress but about adaptation to environment."

"The evidence for evolution is overwhelming when you understand where to look for it."

"We are not descended from the apes but are apes ourselves."

"Gould believed that humility before nature was essential to good science."

"The complexity of life requires explanation; randomness alone cannot account for it."

"The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but God is waiting for you at the bottom of the glass."

"What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."

"Physics is really nothing more than a sophisticated version of childhood games."

"The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities."