Dawkins Blind Watchmaker Quotes & Sayings

Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation forthe existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker. — Richard Dawkins

In Los Angeles, by the time you're 35, you're older than most of the buildings. — Delia Ephron

In the case of living machinery, the 'designer' is unconscious natural selection, the blind watchmaker. — Richard Dawkins

Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves. — Duke Ellington

I have immense admiration for the writer/directors and director/actors who just seamlessly do both jobs at the same time. — Jim Piddock

There are a few directors around who I have some excitement about spending my $7 at the theatre watching their movies. — Sean Penn

The only watchmaker is the blind forces of physics. — Richard Dawkins

I don't want to oppress men or demand to be given rights beyond what's held by them, but neither do I want men to oppress women. As God's creations, we should be held in equal esteem. — Kim Vogel Sawyer

Don't think, just feel it. I know you do; I can see it on your face. — Megan Smith

Humans are often credited with having real foresight, in distinction to the rest of biology which does not. For example, Dawkins compares the 'blind watchmaker' of natural selection with the real human one. 'A true watchmaker has foresight: he designs his cogs and springs, and plans their interconnections, with a future purpose in his mind's eye. Natural selection ... has no purpose in mind'.
I think this distinction is wrong. There is no denying that the human watchmaker is different from the natural one. We humans, by virtue of having memes, can think about cogs, and wheels, and keeping time, in a way that animals cannot. Memes are the mind tools with which we do it. But what memetics shows us is that the processes underlying the two kinds of design are essentially the same. They are both evolutionary processes that give rise to design through selection, and in the process they produce what looks like foresight. — Susan Blackmore

Mine is a quiet exploration - a quest for new meanings in color, texture and design. Even though I sometimes portray scenes of poor and struggling people, it is a great joy to paint. — Lois Mailou Jones

when your knees become fatter than your legs, start eating again. — Jane Moore

Why does everybody think I argue? I never argue." Skye hesitated. "Or at least, I'm not going to argue as much anymore."
"That would be a miracle."
Skye chose to pretend she hadn't heard. — Jeanne Birdsall

Tool of Communist agitators ... it's really a joke, isn't it? Because, quite clearly, we are a party of real moderates. It just shows how little they understand. — Helen Suzman

N-D-A spelt else wise is to be in our D-N-A, was a thought reaffirmed. — Rajat Mishra

Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view. Yet the living results of natural selection overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design as if by a master watchmaker, impress us with the illusion of design and planning. — Richard Dawkins

People who are so dreadfully "devoted" to their wives are so apt, from mere habit, to get devoted to other people's wives as well. — Jane Welsh Carlyle