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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“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you”
― quote from A Course in Miracles
“Страшна не сама смерть, не смертная боль от ножей жатки, не вопль, не окровавленные обрубки ног… но то, что так легко умереть, уйти из жизни прежде, чем снова созреет пшеница.”
― John Fowles, quote from Daniel Martin
“I knew then the answer to my question; the question I’d asked myself many times during this war, and many more times since it ended. When would I be able to put the war behind me? When would I be able to forget it? And I knew now that the answer was simple.
Never. I never would. Some things end. But war never does.”
― John Marsden, quote from The Other Side of Dawn
“Fear arises from uncertainty. Where there is perfect certainty, there is no fear.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, quote from Byzantium
“Эгоизм — это не просто аспект моего поведения, а черта характера. Он означает, что я хочу иметь все для себя Меня радует не возможность поделиться, а возможность владеть…[и] если обладание стало моей целью, то, чем больше я владею, тем больше я существую… Я никогда не бываю довольным, ибо моим желаниям нет конца; я вынужден завидовать тем, кто богаче меня, и бояться тех, кто беднее меня”
― Erich Fromm, quote from To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche
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