A Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

I like to summarize what I regard as the pedestal-smashing messages of Darwin's revolution in the following statement, which might be chanted several times a day, like a Hare Krishna mantra, to encourage penetration into the soul: Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which, if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again, or perhaps any twig with any property that we would care to call consciousness.

Stephen Jay Gould

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Afterthought Again Almost Any Bush Call Care Consciousness Cosmic Darwin Day Encourage End End Result Evolutionary Following Fortuitous Grow Hare Hare Krishna Humans Krishna Life Like Little Mantra Messages Might Pedestal Penetration Perhaps Predictable Progress Property Rather Regard Result Revolution Seed Several Smashing Soul Statement Summarize Surely Times Tiny Twig Which Would

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Stephen Jay Gould
American - Scientist
September 10, 1941 - May 20, 2002

Stephen Jay Gould

Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again.

Stephen Jay Gould

Well, listen, you know, the Czech saying is, you know, when you are drowning you are grabbing even a little twig. That's what all Czechs were doing, grabbing for... with the hope for this little twig.

Milos Forman

It is always advisable to obtain a mantra from a self-realized master. Until then we may use one of the mantras of our beloved deity like 'Om Namah Shivaya', 'Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya', 'Om Namo Narayanaya', 'Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare', 'Om Shivashaktyaikya Rupinyai Namaha' or even the names of Christ, Allah or Buddha.

Mata Amritanandamayi

I want to cultivate the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.

Kathe Kollwitz

I've not really had a bad Christmas. Apart from serious things, like when my father died. He rather spoiled the party and I've never forgiven him for falling off the twig on Christmas Day.

John Nettles

It would be great if everyone chanted Hare Krishna. Everybody would benefit by doing it.

George Harrison

Humans arose ... as a fortuitous and contingent outcome of thousands of linked events, any one of which could have occurred differently and sent history on an alternative pathway that would not have led to consciousness.

Stephen Jay Gould

Acting on even a twig of faith allows God to grow it.

Henry B. Eyring

Intentions are a lot like seeds. You shove them into the ground, and every once in awhile, you water them. Largely, the seed does most of the work on its own. If, on one hand, you were digging the seed up several times a day to see what progress was being made, the seed would not take purchase in the soil. On the other hand, if you completely ignored it, giving no water or nourishment to the soil, the seed might not thrive.

Mary Anne Radmacher

After a war life catches desperately at passing hints of normalcy like vines entwining a hollow twig.

Chinua Achebe

The flamingoes are the most delicately colored of all the African birds, pink and red like a flying twig of an oleander bush. They have incredibly long legs and bizarre and recherché curves of their necks and bodies, as if from some exquisite traditional prudery they were making all attitudes and movements in life as difficult as possible.

Isak Dinesen

Once I chanted the Hare Krishna mantra all the way from France to Portugal, nonstop. I drove for about twenty-three hours and chanted all the way. It gets you feeling a bit invincible. The funny thing was that I didn't even know where I was going. I mean I had bought a map, and I knew basically which way I was aiming, but I couldn't speak French, Spanish, or Portuguese. But none of that seemed to matter. You know, once you get chanting, then things start to happen transcendentally.

George Harrison

You may tell by looking at any twig of the forest, ay, at your very wood-pile, whether its winter is past or not.

Henry David Thoreau

The origin of Homo sapiens, as a tiny twig on an improbable branch of a contingent limb on a fortunate tree, lies well below the boundary.

Stephen Jay Gould

The rainforest has an intense beauty that at times seems almost suffocating. The jungle is one twig short of impenetrable, and the greenery seems to crowd in on you with a sensation that has been described as akin to snow blindness.

Mark Barrowcliffe

A Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

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