Edward Wilson Quotations

Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies . . . I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.

I am an optimist by nature. But I have to admit, it's getting kind of scary.

Colonies with lower relatedness among the workers often have higher growth and reproduction rates than those with higher relatedness,

Most children have a bug period, and I never grew out of mine.

Human activity equals a decline of the rest of life on earth,

Human beings live -- literally live, as if life is equated with the mind -- by symbols, particularly words, because the brain is constructed to process information almost exclusively in their terms.

We propose this with great caution, ... The evidence, after all, only applies strongly to insects. Human altruism and tight-knit societies may well have evolved differently. But if it is true, it would help us understand the group aggression and warfare so widespread today. Those who study human biology and behavior should take a new look at this possibility.

Here we are at the rheas. That's now known as Darwin's rhea, and it lived about 1,000 kilometers south of the larger variety.

The organism is only DNA's way of making more DNA.

Giants exist as a state of mind. They are defined not as an absolute measurement but as a proportionality. . . . So giants can be real, even if adults do not choose to classify them as such.