Stephen Jay Gould Quotes About Perspective

Quotes about: Perspective

• Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Thinking, Mirrors, Perspective

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “Full House”, p.73, Harvard University Press

• The facts of nature are what they are, but we can only view them through the spectacles of our mind. Our mind works largely by metaphor and comparison, not always (or often) by relentless logic. When we are caught in conceptual traps, the best exit is often a change in metaphor not because the new guideline will be truer to nature (for neither the old nor the new metaphor lies "out there" in the woods), but because we need a shift to more fruitful perspectives, and metaphor is often the best agent of conceptual transition.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Lying, Views, Perspective

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History”, p.264, W. W. Norton & Company

• I strongly reject any conceptual scheme that places our options on a line, and holds that the only alternative to a pair of extreme positions lies somewhere between them. More fruitful perspectives often require that we step off the line to a site outside the dichotomy.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Lying, Perspective, Alternatives

  Stephen Jay Gould (1990). “Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History”, p.51, W. W. Norton & Company

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