Richard Dawkins · 336 pages
Rating: (6.8K votes)
“The facts are as follows. The total amount of DNA in different organisms is very variable, and the variation does not make obvious sense in terms of phylogeny. This is the so-called ‘C-value paradox’. ‘It seems totally implausible that the number of radically different genes needed in a salamander is 20 times that found in a man’ (Orgel & Crick 1980). It is equally implausible that salamanders on the West side of North America should need many times more DNA than congeneric salamanders on the East side.”
― Richard Dawkins, quote from The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
“The whole purpose of our search for a ‘unit of selection’ is to discover a suitable actor to play the leading role in our metaphors of purpose.”
― Richard Dawkins, quote from The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
“Adoption and contraception, like reading, mathematics, and stress-induced illness, are products of an animal that is living in an environment radically different from the one in which its genes were naturally selected.”
― Richard Dawkins, quote from The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
“To the extent that active germ-line replicators benefit from the survival of the bodies in which they sit, we may expect to see adaptations that can be interpreted as for bodily survival. A large number of adaptations are of this type. To the extent that active germ-line replicators benefit from the survival of bodies other than those in which they sit, we may expect to see ‘altruism’, parental care, etc. To the extent that active germ-line replicators benefit from the survival of the group of individuals in which they sit, over and above the two effects just mentioned, we may expect to see adaptations for the preservation of the group.”
― Richard Dawkins, quote from The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
“Why are genetic determinants thought to be any more ineluctable, or blame-absolving, than ‘environmental’ ones?”
― Richard Dawkins, quote from The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
Richard Dawkins
Born place: in Nairobi, Kenya
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“Catgut is a type of surgical thread made from the intestines of cows or sheep.” “So why do they call it catgut?” asked Rizzoli. “It goes back to the Middle Ages, when gut strings were used on musical instruments. The musicians referred to their instruments as their kit, and the strings were called kitgut. The word eventually became catgut.”
― Tess Gerritsen, quote from The Surgeon
“I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not,except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions? And then there is the question on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it,and how this affects our dealings with others.Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it;some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of.”
― Julian Barnes, quote from The Sense of an Ending
“Art was as much in the activity as in the results. Works of art were not just the finished product, but the thought, the action, the process that created them.”
― Jean M. Auel, quote from The Mammoth Hunters
“Simply put, dramatic irony is when a person makes a harmless remark, and someone else who hears it knows something that makes the remark have a different, and usually unpleasant, meaning. For instance, if you were in a restaurant and said out loud, "I can't wait to eat the veal marsala I ordered," and there were people around who knew that the veal marsala was poisoned and that you would die as soon as you took a bite, your situation would be one of dramatic irony.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from The Reptile Room
“the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it
- there is nothing purer than that”
― Rupi Kaur, quote from Milk and Honey
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