Selection Quotes - Page 6

• In the study of this membrane [the retina] I for the first time felt my faith in Darwinism (hypothesis of natural selection) weakened, being amazed and confounded by the supreme constructive ingenuity revealed not only in the retina and in the dioptric apparatus of the vertebrates but even in the meanest insect eye. ... I felt more profoundly than in any other subject of study the shuddering sensation of the unfathomable mystery of life.

  Santiago Ramon y Cajal

  Eye, Science, Research

  Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1989). “Recollections of My Life”, p.576, MIT Press

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• It is folly to use as one's guide in the selection of fundamental science the criterion of utility. Not because (scientists)... despise utility. But because. .. useful outcomes are best identified after the making of discoveries, rather than before.

  John Charles Polanyi

  Science, Discovery, Use

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• We are at our human finest, dancing with our minds, when there are more choices than two. Sometimes there are ten, even twenty different ways to go, all but one bound to be wrong, and the richness of the selection in such situations can lift us onto totally new ground.

  Lewis Thomas

  Science, Two, Dancing

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

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• The growth of our knowledge is the result of a process closely resembling what Darwin called 'natural selection'; that is, the natural selection of hypotheses: our knowledge consists, at every moment, of those hypotheses which have shown their (comparative) fitness by surviving so far in their struggle for existence, a competitive struggle which eliminates those hypotheses which are unfit.

  Karl Popper

  Struggle, Knowledge, Science

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• We may consequently state the fundamental theorem of Natural Selection in the form: The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time.

  Ronald Fisher

  Fundamentals, May, Natural

  "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection". Book by Ronald Fisher, 1930.

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• We are moving from unconscious evolution through natural selection to conscious evolution by choice.

  Barbara Marx Hubbard

  Moving, Choices, Evolution

  FaceBook post by Barbara Marx Hubbard from Aug 04, 2016

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• The fundamental biological variant is DNA. That is why Mendel's definition of the gene as the unvarying bearer of hereditary traits, its chemical identification by Avery (confirmed by Hershey), and the elucidation by Watson and Crick of the structural basis of its replicative invariance, are without any doubt the most important discoveries ever made in biology. To this must be added the theory of natural selection, whose certainty and full significance were established only by those later theories.

  Jacques Monod

  Science, Dna, Discovery

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• The scientific value of truth is not, however, ultimate or absolute. It rests partly on practical, partly on aesthetic interests. As our ideas are gradually brought into conformity with the facts by the painful process of selection,-for intuition runs equally into truth and into error, and can settle nothing if not controlled by experience,-we gain vastly in our command over our environment. This is the fundamental value of natural science

  George Santayana

  Running, Science, Errors

  George Santayana (2004). “The Sense of Beauty”, p.22, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Nothing drives progress like the imagination. The idea precedes the deed. The only exceptions are accidents and natural selection.

  Theodore Levitt

  Science, Ideas, Imagination

  Theodore Levitt (1986). “Marketing Imagination: New, Expanded Edition”, p.127, Simon and Schuster

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• Most educated people are aware that we are the outcome of nearly 4 billion years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans who watch the sun’s demise, 6 billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.

  Martin Rees

  Science, Thinking, Years

  "The Catastrophist" by Christopher Hitchens, www.theatlantic.com. January 2010.

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• Tolstoi explains somewhere in his writings why, in his opinion, “Science for Science's sake” is an absurd conception. We cannot know all the facts, since they are practically infinite in number. We must make a selection. Is it not better to be guided by utility, by our practical, and more especially our moral, necessities?

  Henri Poincare

  Writing, Science, Numbers

  "The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare".

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• If the selection process is right and its members GOOD, then there could be no reason why the collection of the teammates be not BETTER and bright who would work in the BEST interest of the organization, either individually or jointly, to bring sustainability in achieving newer growth height.

  Anuj

  Organization, Growth, Teammate

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• Scientific theories never dictate human values, but they can often cast new light on ethical issues. From a sexual selection viewpoint, moral philosophy and political theory have mostly been attempts to shift male human sexual competitiveness from physical violence to the peaceful accumulation of wealth and status. The rights to life, liberty, and property are cultural inventions that function, in part, to keep males from killing and stealing from one another while they compete to attract sexual partners.

  Geoffrey Miller

  Philosophy, Issues, Rights

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• Look, I think liberals have reasonable gripes with Fox News. It does lean to the right, primarily in its opinion programming but also in its story selection (which is fine by me) and elsewhere. But it's worth remembering that Fox is less a bastion of ideological conservatism and more a populist, tabloidy network.

  Jonah Goldberg

  Thinking, Doe, Looks

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• Parents...rigidly monitor the selection of television programs...and other forms of entertainment for your family. Foster in your homes a love of knowledge through uplifting literature; wholesome books; selective movies; classical and exemplary popular music; entertainment that uplifts and edifies the spirit and mind.

  David B. Haight

  Uplifting, Book, Home

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• In however complex a manner this feeling may have originated, as it is one of high importance to all those animals which aid and defend one another, it will have been increased through natural selection; for those communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Numbers, Community

  Charles Darwin (1875). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.107

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• Accurate reading on a wide range of subjects makes the scholar; careful selection of the better makes the saint.

  John of Salisbury

  Reading, Saint, Range

  John (of Salisbury, Bishop of Chartres) (1979). “Policraticus: the statesman's book”, Frederick Ungar

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• A well arranged scrapbook, filled with choice selections, is a most excellent companion for anyone who has the least literary taste.

  Channing Tatum

  Choices, Taste, Excellent

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• Without death there would be no awareness of life, and the recurring selection and renewal that has caused life's progress would be ended.

  Charles Lindbergh

  Death, Progress, Would Be

  Charles A. Lindbergh (1992). “Autobiography of Values”, Harcourt

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• By the cold Darwinian logic of natural selection, evolution codifies happenstance into strategy.

  David Quammen

  Logic, Evolution, Cold

  David Quammen (2012). “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic”, p.17, W. W. Norton & Company

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• 'Passione' is a selection of the music moments that have accompanied my youth; a collection of cherished memories, of moments, of fleeting emotions, of sleepless nights.

  Andrea Bocelli

  Memories, Night, Fleeting

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• One of the things it was obvious you could do with an online store is have a much more complete selection.

  Jeff Bezos

  Online, Stores, Obvious

  "Book Learning". Interview with Deborah Solomon, www.nytimes.com. December 2, 2009.

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• The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

  Irving Babbitt

  Sympathy, Balance, Humanist

  Irving Babbitt (1908). “Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities”

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• I have nothing to do with the selection of stories. I'm the reporter.

  Kate Adie

  Stories, Reporters

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• There is danger in the concentration of control in the television and radio networks, especially in the large television and radio stations; danger in the concentration of ownership in the press...and danger in the increasing concentration of selection by book publishers and reviewers and by the producers of radio and television programs.

  Eugene McCarthy

  Book, Television, Radio

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