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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“Things change,” Daja said softly. “We change with them. We sail before the wind. We become adults. As adults, we keep our minds and our secrets hidden, and our wounds. It’s safer.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from The Will of the Empress
“What's that darkness over there?" Leven asked.
"It's not good." Clover said.
"Then what is it?"
'Bad," Clover suggested, sounding as though he wasn't all that impressed with Leven's level of knowledge.
"I understand opposites," Leven said, frustrated.”
― Obert Skye, quote from Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret
“she clutched her purse and was completely composed, gracefully accepting people’s sympathies, but when they started to shovel the dirt over old dick’s coffin she began to weep, and her grief was strong enough to chase the sparrows from the trees.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Second Nature
“Between two throw-ins in a soccer game, right behind my back, three thousand people had been put to death.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, quote from This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
“How do I know Michael hasn't met some other girl?
Some Floridian girl, with long,sun-streaked hair, and a tan,and breasts? Who has access to the Internet and isn't cooped up in a palace with her crazy grandma,a homeless,Speedo-wearing prince and a freakish,hairless miniature poodle?”
― Meg Cabot, quote from Princess in Waiting
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