E. O. Wilson La Quotations

The laws of biology are written in the language of diversity.

So in my freshman year at the University of Alabama, learning the literature on evolution, what was known about it biologically, just gradually transformed me by taking me out of literalism and increasingly into a more secular, scientific view of the world.

Ants are the dominant insects of the world, and they've had a great impact on habitats almost all over the land surface of the world for more than 50-million years.

Every native species, however humble in appearance...has its place in the nation's heritage. It is a masterpiece of evolution, an ancient, multifaceted entity that shares the land with us.

This planet can be a paradise in the 22nd century.

Darwin's dice have rolled badly for Earth. The human species is, in a word, an environmental abnormality. Perhaps a law of evolution is that intelligence usually extinguishes itself.

The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.

If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving little or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion acres) would support about 10 billion people,

Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to humanity, every year.

Jungles and grasslands are the logical destinations, and towns and farmland the labyrinths that people have imposed between them sometime in the past. I cherish the green enclaves accidentally left behind.

While ants exist in just the right numbers for the rest of the living world, humans have become too numerous. If we were to vanish today, the land environment would return to the fertile balance that existed before the human population explosion. Only a dozen or so species, among which are the crab louse and a mite that lives in the oil glands of our foreheads, depend on us entirely. But if ants were to disappear, tens of thousands of other plants and animal species would perish also, simplifying and weakening land ecosystems almost everywhere.

So important are insects and other land-dwelling arthropods that if all were to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months.

To search for unasked questions, plus questions to put to already acquired but unsought answers, it is vital to give full play to the imagination. That is the way to create truly original science.

Daily life is a comprimised blend of posturing for the sake of role-playing and of varying degrees of self-revelation. Under stressful conditions even the "true" self cannot be precisely defined, as Erving Goffman observes. ...Little wonder that the identity crisis is a major source of modern neuroticism , and that the urban middle class aches for a return to a simpler existence.

The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.

If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.

In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems.

It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.

I had in mind a message, although I hope it doesn't intrude too badly, persuading Americans, and especially Southerners, of the critical importance of land and our vanishing natural environment and wildlife.

We need freedom to roam across land owned by no one but protected by all, whose unchanging horizon is the same that bounded the world of our millennial ancestors.

Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world.

Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.

There are lots of planning opportunities in the timing of withdrawals to pay for college. For high school juniors, we're rebalancing to prepare for payout. For seniors, we may not plan payouts until the family has gotten their financial-aid package.

This is the biggest win I've ever been a part of. Louisville came out with a swagger in the second half. But I knew we could win if we just made some plays. About the end of their third quarter, their offensive linemen just started laying down.

On behalf of the BBF, I want to give Mr. William Sands and Commonwealth Bank our sincerest thanks. Without their assistance it would be extremely difficult to send our award-winning team to the competitions they need to go to in order to put them on the international stage. The team needs to be exposed to this level of competition in order to prepare for the Olympics. We are also heartened by the fact that Commonwealth Bank supports our sport of basketball, which plays a tremendous part in the development of our youth.

On a three-year lease cycle, we feel that with standard and mainstream systems, we will be hardware-ready for Vista when we deploy in late 2007 or early 2008,

No-till in and of itself is a carbon credit. If someone is willing to pay you to do what you've been doing, then why not get involved? You are just leaving money on the land if you don't.

We know where we stand and where we are. Why bring it up? It's the past. That happened last year.

Usually when the public gets admitted to something, it's the end of the bubble. The exponential growth in private equity and hedge funds in the last decade is mind-boggling. There's a bubble here that's going to bust. There's too much money. That's true in venture capital and it's true of hedge funds as well.

With the distractions of the recent audit committee investigations largely behind us, we expect much improved management focus and quality of execution in this business during the second half of the year. Going forward, we can and expect to do better.

This is big for these girls. They worked hard, and I tried to make them aware of how close they were last year ... and they really wanted to do well, so I didn't think the nine days we had off hurt us from that perspective because they were really ready to play.

They have to have an exceptional workplace in order to relocate employees and attract new employees. Having a workplace with amenities for the employees is very important.

They learn how to take better pictures. Twenty-five percent of the class is taking pictures. The students take their own shots and share them in class where we get to critique them. They also get to turn a modest picture into a stunning picture by changing the perspective.

Whatever manager we're playing for, whether it be Pete or Lloyd, we come out with the same goal to win games. We're not looking for a fresh start, we're looking to get back on track.

What more can a regular person expect from us? We were a real underdog, and we fought till we couldn't fight anymore. That's all we could give.

We would love to bring a playoff game back to the city of Denver. Trust me, I know we haven't won the AFC West since I've been here. Trust me, I know that, and you don't have to tell me that. But that's what we push for. We're pushing to win our division, first of all. And once you win your division it gives you a home playoff game and possibly home-field advantage and you go from there.

We would be much better off to agree on a wise and relevant platform plank and do so in platform committee. I hope that we can do that. If we can't, then possibly we'll have to take this to the floor. And then we'll see who has the votes.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad we are looking at a surplus instead of a deficit. But then I think we should have a plan for that surplus.

I may not be where I was last year, but I'm where I need to be. That's a good sign, but it's not about being able to do that once. Last year, I was able to do it for three, four innings. I just haven't been able to get stretched out yet.

I don't know, ... They'll have to show me. We've got a lot of good players and I want to see what they do in the second half.

I'd be a fool if I said I wasn't looking at the clock every couple of seconds. But we played really hard. I was just excited to be in this position. Obviously it hurts to lose, we're all sore losers. But they have five NBA players on their team, they were bigger than us at every spot.

The Southern pattern was that every farm or plantation would have their family cemetery.

It just happened., ... People were everywhere looking for a place to stay and somehow, they found us. We were here playing bingo one minute, and the next we were taking in all these people. It's been wonderful helping them all.

In the old days, if you wanted to go rallying you had to be in a Ford. We're trying to recreate that so that, in the future, if you want to get started in rallying, then your first choice should be a Ford. The engineers have done a lot of work with the Group N car in particular to make it fun and easy to drive.

In practice, managed services vendors are primarily the major wireless infrastructure equipment vendors. This is logical: they already have close relationships with the service operators; they have the very deep pockets needed to succeed in this field; and they've always offered some services relating to their own equipment installation and maintenance. Finally, they enjoy economies of scale, because they may offer the same service to many different operators.

We're going to see continued volatility in the near term -- the oil market is sending conflicting signals.

She would pull double shifts when we were short staffed. She took care of her patients. Never got a complaint on her. Never. Tommy was motivated. Anything he was needed to be done, he got it done.

It goes both ways. They know if they throw it in, we're not black holes. It will come back out.

They ran together just about the whole race and there was only a two second difference between them. They've been doing that all year long, going back and forth. This time they kind of partnered up and had some good competition between them, ... Looking ahead we'd like to see both of them contend for one of those top two places at districts. We just need our middle and back end to move up more and we've been moving up. We were in the 20s and now we're in the teens, so we're starting to see some improvement there.

All we did is open a can of worms and show people: 'Hey, bring it to Oklahoma. We've got to come out there and answer our bell and take the fight to these guys this week and from there hopefully have some success and maybe get this thing turned around and get back to playing in a strong way and having a chance to have a great year.

The girls played hard. It was a well fought game.

Last year we didn't have the same team. This year we have a more able team. We can fight back.

Last year this time we were on the other side, just hoping and praying that somehow they would stick us in there. It makes the day a lot more fun, knowing they will be calling our name sometime.

Last year we were praying and hoping to get in. We expect to be in this year.

The farmer then has an incentive not to sell his land, ... And society has what it wants - open space.

You just have to take the positives. We haven't played that bad. It was nice to get the first one. We didn't want to go home 0-7. We didn't want to go home 1-6 either.

You can have it pop up with what historical location they're by, what restaurant they're by, what landmark they might be by, so yeah, you can get within a pretty good block radius, if not the exact location.

We certainly have indications, increasingly so, that units either can't carry out a mission which is assigned to them because of fuel shortages, or are reluctant to plan a mission which can't be carried out because of fuel shortages or have to call a mission short because of fuel shortages,

Without a doubt our planet will be hit again many times in the future, unless we can prevent it from happening. We're not sure yet what the best way to do this is, but in order to figure that out, we've really got to better understand what comets and asteroids are made of and how they're put together. So, in a sense, Deep Impact is our latest attempt to get to know our potential enemies.

Ralph Lauren and I get along way too well for me to shop at JC Penny's.

How are people supposed to keep jobs and make a living and do this too? I'm already late to work and I can't give up my job.

Three of the last four years is a great credit to the organization for what they have done. It is definitely going to give us an opportunity to raise the level of our play because we are going to have to play our best football game to beat this team.

At first we played a little scared. In the second half, we had nothing to lose. We wanted to play with our hearts and finish strong. To battle them and not give up.

Everyone stepped up and shot the ball, even those who don't usually shoot it. Everyone just played so well out there.

This is the problem, you gotta get into all this mixture of rock and blues that is happening in a feeble way these days. No one wants to go out and see a guy in a club who really can't play that well playing through a 300-watt Marshall blowing their face off. People have become disillusioned by the quality of the music, by the volume of the music, by the lack of humility that you see in some of these people because they think they can just pick up a guitar and walk out there and after three months be somebody. And you know what? Nothing is further from the truth.

This is the usually the first tournament where most of the teams will have their full rosters with their high school players. Clinton had a tournament last weekend that some of the clubs played in, but this is the first real big one.

We knew we could come back. The players were cheering each other on and saying we can do this.

He stood in our end and watched his guy score after like three guys had blocked shots, ... I just said, 'That's enough.' He'd seemed indifferent and I had to grab his attention. He needed to be kicked in the butt and he got it. He got some pressure from his teammates to back up the stuff I was saying, and to his credit, he's played hard ever since. And that's including practice, which is important, too.

The plight of the children on board this ship serves as a timely reminder that slavery and bondage are still realities in the world.

Having Mike Anderson back, that's big. We really missed him last year. And having Ron Dayne, that makes us better in short-yardage right there. It's the will, if a guy wants it, he's going to get it. If the guys up front help him, the back can do the rest himself, and we have those kind of backs.

He's a big kid; he covers a lot of ground. You have really got to work hard and you've got to score on rebounds and their defense did a good job of clearing the net. It's basically a dogfight every shot and rebound in there, and they played it well.

It's definitely half-full. I'm not happy with the way we played in the first half of the game. But we took control, had a number of scoring opportunities. Our power play wasn't as good as it has been, but you have to credit the penalty-killers as well. They did a great job.

It's definitely a good sign. With what you have seen in the past with guys with this problem, it's great that the surgery went well and it wasn't as intrusive at it could have been. We'll be glad to have him back.

This new deal is worse than the one we had. You want labor peace, but you also want a fair deal.

We should have played better in the first half. We just came out dead in the first quarter. We had no energy. Still, how did we lose that game?

I just don't think we made enough progress in the last five years. I just think we need a fresh start and that's why this change is being made.

The kind of jobs I did before were all about standing back from different circumstances and seeking to contribute to a strategy which would mean a good outcome. It's difficult to translate that skill directly into football, particularly when the situation has not yet arisen. But the whole thing about where Celtic play and whether they can crack the enigma of having huge potential while operating in a small arena is certainly something that interests me.

I didn't feel the pressure that everybody thinks about on sophomore albums. I didn't think about it. I had final approval on all the songs. My label trusted me to know my audience. We recorded 16 songs, and we used them all.

I didn't know I was going to be featured. They stacked the box and the coaches left it up to the receivers to make plays down the field.

No one wants to pay more on water bills, ... But it's federally mandated and everyone knows it's the law.

A pitcher should throw the ball over the plate. He shouldn't be throwing at the guy's head. You can pitch inside, but you don't throw at someone's head. There's no other way to say it. He hit him in the head. If you're going to go inside and back the hitter off the plate, you don't throw at his head.

The housing group will be fairly stable the next six months, then later will react to opportunities after various regional markets find stable levels. It's looking like the Federal Reserve may be done with raising interest rates in the spring and rates will have peaked, removing the fear that they were going to keep drifting further up.

Our pitching, we had too many walks. Defense made a couple errors that we can't afford to make but otherwise we played pretty well.

Our ridership has been going up pretty consistently for the last couple of years. It's hard to say how much of it in the last couple of months is the gas prices and how much of it is the economy.

Your veto would undermine all we are doing in California. Moreover, it would jeopardize our economic security for no apparent reason other than that of placating the short-sighted, protectionist demands of organized labor pressure groups.

Nelson Mandela is a hero to all people who value freedom and dignity and justice. President Mandela's principled opposition to tyranny and injustice inspires us today and will inspire our sons and daughters for generations to come.

It's good when you qualify a relay because then they feed off each other. Those four guys were always able to fire each other up. (In Canton) Justin tried to get some strength from his buddies on Westerville North and St. Charles, but it's not quite the same thing.

We are glad we had such a large turnout and it is surprising but I understand why they are here. People are tired of what's going on in our schools.

As the attorney general of the home state of country music I want to discuss my concerns of your promotion of smokeless products, particularly as it relates to the youth who attend your concerts and who listen to your music,

Personally, I've always thought dying on vacation was the better way to go . . . I do have certain requests about my passing, though. I hope that if I die in a plane crash, it's coming FROM a vacation instead of heading TO. I know, it's a small consolation, but I'd have a tan and would look rested at my calling hours.

It's time for us to grow up as a team. I don't think we've handled success as well as we've handled adversity. Every time we've come off a bad loss, we've played well the next game. It's important for us to learn how to build off big wins.

It will be interesting this year. We might look at it as a great rebuilding year, planning for the next two years.

That whole issue of 'Can a woman be tough enough?' has plagued women candidates. That's starting to change. We've had experience with Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright as secretary of State. (Shuttle commander) Eileen Collins lands on Earth and looks like she just took a Ferris wheel ride. Those things change the perception of what women can do.

Kara's like another coach on the floor. She's very, very intelligent. She understands strategy. Her memory is unreal. She knows plays as well as I know them. And she's very vocal. If somebody's not in the right spot, she'll tell them immediately. She's a voice of reason. She points out common sense things that people don't get at times.

The students actually had the opportunity to play a variety of rhythm instruments together. There were instruments of all sizes; some that were played while straddling, some that are carried, and some that were three-feet tall.

The team that played the best tonight did not win.

I was so full of nerves over the last three stages, ... I heard everything and I felt everything, but the car was absolutely fine. I was really quite hopeful this morning. Mark only took 8 seconds out of me on this first one this morning and I thought, 'that's only half a second a mile, I can live with that' and then he only took half a second out of me on the next one. But when he spun on the third one that really allowed me to relax a bit.

I was so full of nerves over the last three stages,

I'm against playing it in cold weather. But that wasn't the decisive reason Phoenix got the game. It was the new stadium and the weather that that area enjoys at that time of year. That's what decided my vote.

It's just a huge boost for us to have one extra playmaker on our defense. He makes so many impact plays and changes the game a lot.