The voices / 34 fragments

Stephen Jay Gould

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01Undated

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

02Undated

Revolutions usually begin as replacements for older certainties, and not as pristine discoveries in uncharted terrain.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

03Undated

People, as curious primates, dote on concrete objects that can be seen and fondled. God dwells among the details, not in the realm of pure generality. We must tackle and grasp the larger, encompassing themes of our universe, but we make our best approach through small curiosities that rivet our attention - all those pretty pebbles on the shoreline of knowledge. For the ocean of truth washes over the pebbles with every wave, and they rattle and clink with the most wondrous din.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

04Undated

In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

05Undated

Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

06Undated

Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

07Undated

What you see is that the most outstanding feature of life's history is a constant domination by bacteria.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

08Undated

With copious evidence ranging from Plato's haughtiness to Beethoven's tirades, we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a prickly lot.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

09Undated

If I don't make it, I'll be very sad that there are things I didn't do, but I'm happy that I've done what I have.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote

10Undated

We pass through this world but once.

Stephen Jay Gould / quote