Darwinian Fitness Quotes & Sayings

Start a program for gifted children, and every parent demands that his child be enrolled. — Thomas A. Bailey

Time and again, my sociobiological colleagues have upbraided me as a turncoat, because I will not agree with them that the ultimate criterion for the success of a meme must be its contribution to Darwinian "fitness". At bottom, they insist, a "good meme" spreads because brains are receptive to it, and the receptiveness of brains is ultimately shaped by (genetic) natural selection. — Richard Dawkins

There have been times when I've been broke, and a job came along, and I've said, 'Yeah! Let's do it!' But I will never do something without having a feeling of knowing how to play it. I've been in projects that I felt terrible about afterwards, but I've always had something that sparked me while I was doing it. — Alan Arkin

L]iberalism holds that the resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism — James Luther Adams

My comedy is different than a lot of people's. — Lindsay Wagner

Now we have come full circle to the subtitle of this book: children learn by unlearning other languages. Viewed in the Darwinian light, all humanly possible grammars compete to match the language spoken in the child's environment. And fitness, because we have competition, can be measured by the compatibility of a grammar with what a child hears in a particular linguistic environment. This theory of language takes both nature and nurture into account: nature proposes, and nurture disposes. — Charles Yang

A Darwinian nation of economic fitness abhors idleness, dependence, non-productivity. — Simone De Beauvoir

Walking around with less than ten thousand dollars is completely unacceptable. It's a necessity of life. It gives you freedom. The most important thing in life is a sense of possibility, and you simply can't have it with less than ten thousand dollars in your pocket. — Rocco Landesman

Work hard and meticulously. When in trouble, look closely at a text that is a good example of what you're trying to do. And be patient. — Lydia Davis

New York is such a competitive place; it tears people apart. People come here and, if they can't make it in the first month, they get torn apart and they have to go back to where they came from. I don't think that's terribly healthy. — Moby

The bravest are the tenderest. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

At first happiness might seem like just desserts for biological fitness (more accurately, the states that would have led to fitness in the environment in which we evolved). We are happier when we are healthy, well-fed, comfortable, safe, prosperous, knowledgeable, respected, non-celibate, and loved. Compared to their opposites, these objects of striving are conducive to reproduction. The function of happiness would be to mobilize the mind to seek the keys to Darwinian fitness. When we are unhappy, we work for the things that make us happy; when we are happy, we keep the status quo. The problem is, how much fitness is worth striving for? — Steven Pinker

If you took the profit out of war, there would be no war. What the hell do you think war is? You think we go to another country to bring democracy? We go there 'cause there's oil, resources or something we need. — Jacque Fresco

You know, I preferred you as an evil monk. Would have made killing you a whole lot easier. — Chris D'Lacey

And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything. — Paul Tough

The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever. — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

My favorite rocker is Go because it is heavy and chaotic. — Mike McCready

If you feel the purpose of life is struggle, Darwinian fitness, dog eat dog, then you will be eaten by a dog, or you will eat dog. You become what you focus on. — Frederick Lenz

I see potential in everything. It's about opening your mind to what you can do to the garment: because they're cheap, you can cut them or stitch them, and if you stuff it up, it's fine - it's only two dollars. — Abbey Lee Kershaw

It was inevitable: Yankel fell in love with his never-wife. He would wake from sleep to miss the weight that never depressed the bed next to him, remember in earnest the weight of gestures she never made, long for the un-weight of her un-arm slung over his too-real chest, making his widower's rememberences that much more convincing and his pain that much more real. — Jonathan Safran Foer