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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“We all make mistakes, Carol. Sometimes they're more expensive than others. But I don't deserve to lose you,' he said, spreading his hands in appeal.”
― Val McDermid, quote from Cross and Burn
“I don't know what's going on in the world," he said. "Everything seemed so reasonable and scientific until I discovered my son was a fraud with the ability to hide my own memories from me. And now you come along. The captain at the gate told me you were executed and buried yesterday."
"He spoke to you? He didn't say a word to me," I said.
"Don't change the subject, young man. I'm accusing you of violating the laws of nature."
"Nature's virtue is intact. I just know some different laws.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from Treason
“Now Gentry went to the big display unit, the projection table. “There are worlds within worlds,” he said. “Macrocosm, microcosm. We carried an entire universe across a bridge tonight, and that which is above is like that below.… It was obvious, of course, that such things must exist, but I’d not dared to hope.…”
― William Gibson, quote from Mona Lisa Overdrive
“I don't know," he said softly. "I look into the future and I don't see anything else. It's like it's this big blank space where I should be.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, quote from If You Come Softly
“أن كثيراً من هؤلاء الأزواج يخفون تحت ابتسامتهم قلوباً دامية ونفوساً مغبون حقها في اختيار شريك حياتها”
― Rajaa Alsanea, quote from Girls of Riyadh
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