Natural Contribution Quotes & Sayings

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

Jesus taught us a prayer of community and reconciliation, belonging to a new people who have left the land of 'me'. — Shane Claiborne

I also thought the music was a huge contribution, in terms of creating the scale of that. And, I was impressed with just how natural and fluid the world looks. The world is so artificial and it requires so much work to make all the different pieces add up together, but when it comes together, it just looks effortless. It's amazing. — James Frain

[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science. No one or a dozen other books influenced me nearly so much as these two. I copied out from Humboldt long passages about Teneriffe and read them aloud on one of [my walking excursions]. — Charles Darwin

It was Darwin's chief contribution, not only to Biology but to the whole of natural science, to have brought to light a process by which contingencies a priori improbable are given, in the process of time, an increasing probability, until it is their non-occurrence, rather than their occurrence, which becomes highly improbable. — Ronald Fisher

The exultation of poverty as a spiritual virtue is of the ego, not the spirit. A person acting from a motivation of contribution and service rises to such a level of moral authority that worldly success is a natural result. — Marianne Williamson

But most of all I was inspired by the stirring examples of all the other runners. In some pictures they would seem like tiny dots in a mosaic, but each had a separate narrative starting a few months or a lifetime earlier and finishing that day in the New York City Marathon, the race with 37,000 stories. — Mark Sutcliffe

The guiding visionary behind Project Spectrum is Howard Gardner, a psychologist at the Harvard School of Education.7 "The time has come," Gardner told me, "to broaden our notion of the spectrum of talents. The single most important contribution education can make to a child's development is to help him toward a field where his talents best suit him, where he will be satisfied and competent. We've completely lost sight of that. Instead we subject everyone to an education where, if you succeed, you will be best suited to be a college professor. And we evaluate everyone along the way according to whether they meet that narrow standard of success. We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts, and cultivate those. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to succeed, and many, many different abilities that will help you get there. — Daniel Goleman

We are living as if we had three planets' worth of resources to live with rather than just one. We need to cut by about two-thirds our ecological footprint. For that we need one planet farming as well as one planet living - one planet farming which minimises the impact on the environment of food production and consumption, and which maximises its contribution to renewal of the natural environment — David Miliband

I'm just a big believer in 'you must love yourself before you can love anybody else,' and I think for me that breeds the most inspired relationships ... — Scarlett Johansson

Things that I Hope Are True about Heaven

That the radio always plays what would have been your favourite songs. That there's always coffee if you want it. That you're there. That it's real. — Neil Hilborn

Truth, like light is dazzling. By contrast, untruth is a beautiful sunset that enhances everything. — Albert Camus

She tried to speak; her mouth opened, once, twice, silent, a mermaid washed ashore. — Gillian Flynn

An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany. — Nick Cave

God preserve us from writers who regurgitate what they have learnt from books! It is people's secrets we want to know - it is the natural history of the human heart that we have been trying to put down for a thousand years and everyone must and can leave their contribution. — August Strindberg

She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies. — Kurt Vonnegut

The idea that each individual has intrinsic, God-given value and is of infinite worth quite apart from any social contribution - an idea most pagans would have rejected as absurd - persists today as the ethical basis of western law and politics. Our secularized western idea of democratic society owes much to that early Christian vision of a new society - a society no longer formed by the natural bonds of family, tribe, or nation but by the voluntary choice of its members. — Elaine Pagels

You got to go down a lot of wrong roads to find the right one. — Bob Parsons

Sadly, because President Obama has done such a poor job as President, you won't see another black president for generations! I think he has set a very low bar and I think it's a shame for the African-American people. — Pope Francis

No one fears death more than immortals. Humans adjust to their lot in life little bits at a time. They're introduced to the concept with goldfish, then move up to puppies, ancient relatives and reckless friends, each victim closer to them than the last. Death follows them through life, making itself known. Numbing them bit by bit until there is nothing left in them but resignation. We had no such preparation. We were never meant to die. — Kaitlin Bevis

No one worries terribly much about who the questions belong to, or whether a given contribution is really philosophy or, instead, properly nothing but science. Perhaps another way to put this is that, although I think that knowledge is a natural kind, I don't think that philosophy is. — Hilary Kornblith

Success is a planned outcome, not an accident. Success and mediocrity are both absolutely predictable because they follow the natural and immutable law of sowing and reaping. Simply stated, if you want to reap more rewards, you must sow more service, contribution, and value. That is the no-nonsense formula. Some of God's blessings have prerequisites! Success in life is not based on need but on seed. So you've got to become good at either planting in the springtime or begging in the fall. — Tommy Newberry