Matt Ridley Quotes About Evolution

Quotes about: Evolution

• It is the assumption of this book that there is a typical human nature. It is the aim of this book to seek it. Just like a surgeon, a psychiatrist can make all sorts of basic assumptions when a patient lies down upon the couch. He can assume that the patient knows what it means to love, to envy, to trust, to think, to speak, to fear, to smile, to bargain, to covet, to dream, to remember, to sing, to quarrel, to lie. The 'smile' of a baboon is a threat; the smile of a man is a sign of pleasure: it is human nature, the world over.

  Matt Ridley

  Dream, Lying, Book

• Considering the way evolution works, it should not be surprising if every man has got a Don Giovanni somewhere inside him.

  Matt Ridley

  Men, Way, Evolution

• Our minds have been built by selfish genes, but they have been built to be social, trustworthy and cooperative.

  Matt Ridley

  Selfish, Mind, Evolution

• The interaction of genetic and external influences makes my behaviour unpredictable, but not undetermined. In the gap between those words lies freedom.

  Matt Ridley

  Lying, Behaviour, Gaps

• Society works not because we have consciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions. It is literally in our nature.

  Matt Ridley

  Evolution, Ancient, Products

  Matt Ridley (1997). “The Origins of Virtue”, p.13, Penguin UK

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