Ghiselin Quotes & Sayings

There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing. — Mary McCarthy

As Michael T. Ghiselin (1974) said: We are anything but a mechanism set up to perceive the truth for its own sake. Rather, we have evolved a nervous system that acts in the interest of our gonads, and one attuned to the demands of reproductive competition. If fools are more prolific than wise men, then to that degree folly will be favored by selection. And if ignorance aids in obtaining a mate, then men and women will tend to be ignorant. (p. 126) — Jeffry A. Simpson

In order to invent, one must yield to the indeterminate within him. — Brewster Ghiselin

Nothing mattered to him about a person other than what was inside them. — Heather Graham

Say anything that you like about me except that I drink water. — W.C. Fields

I suspect that every writer is secretly writing for someone. — Brewster Ghiselin

Error is part of the overhead of doing research — Michael Ghiselin

So I saw that there was only me. There was only me who could worry about what was happening here, inside these walls of my life. Other people had their own worlds to worry about, and in the end, they had to fend for themselves, just like us. — Markus Zusak

Most whites do not have a racial identity, but they would do well to understand what race means for others. They should also ponder the consequences of being the only group for whom such an identity is forbidden and who are permitted no aspirations as a group. — Jared Taylor

There are so many things I dare not say I have quietly stopped being me. — Abby Fabiaschi

Where it is in his own interest, every organism may reasonably be expected to aid his fellows. Where he has no alternative, he submits to the yoke of communal servitude. Yet given a full chance to act in his own interest, nothing but expediency will restrain him from brutalizing, from maiming, from murdering his brother, his mate, his parent, or his child. Scratch an 'altruist' and watch a 'hypocrite' bleed. — Michael Ghiselin

I worry sometimes that we're apt to confuse forgiveness with forgetfulness. The potency of forgiveness comes precisely from the fact that it must be done while being goaded by an unhappy memory. — Patrick Gale

There was a still life on Billy's bedside table-two pills, an ashtray with three lipstick-stained cigarettes in it, one cigarette still burning, and a glass of water. The water was dead. So it goes. Air was trying to get out of the dead water. Bubbles were clinging to the walls of the glass, too weak to climb out. — Kurt Vonnegut