“The question What is man? is probably the most profound that can be asked by man. It has always been central to any system of philosophy or theology. The point I want to make now is that all attemp...”

“If I didn't fear I'd do you harm...I'd try to make you an atheist. I really do think that you are a deluded follower of mistaken and superstitious and cowardly theories. That's as far as I'll go......”

“Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind.”

“To put it crudely but graphically, the monkey who did not have a realistic perception of the tree branch he jumped for was soon a dead monkeyand therefore did not become one of our ancestors.”

“Among the things most characteristic of organisms--most distinctive of living as opposed to inorganic systems--is a sort of directedness. Their structures and activities have an adaptedness, an evi...”

“I don't think that evolution is supremely important because it is my specialty; it is my specialty because I think it is supremely important. [In: Edward J. Larson (2004) Evolution, Modern Library....”