quote · Legacy record
There are no shortcuts to moral insight. Nature is not intrinsically anything that can offer comfort or solace in human terms -- if only because our species is such an insignificant latecomer in a world not constructed for us. So much the better. The answers to moral dilemmas are not lying out there, waiting to be discovered. They reside, like the kingdom of God, within us -- the most difficult and inaccessible spot for any discovery or consensus.
There are no shortcuts to moral insight. Nature is not intrinsically anything that can offer comfort or solace in human terms -- if only because our species is such an insignificant latecomer in a world not constructed for us. So much the better. The answers to moral dilemmas are not lying out there, waiting to be discovered. They reside, like the kingdom of God, within us -- the most difficult and inaccessible spot for any discovery or consensus.
Approximate author period: c. 1971 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Stephen Jay Gould
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1971 AD · modern
Approximate author-period evidence for Stephen Jay Gould: life dates 1941 to 2002. Wikidata Q180619, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q180619 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 246354; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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