Quotes

These are the quotes from which the random quote in the right-hand sidebar is selected, along with occasional commentary. If you have suggestions for additional quotes, please leave a comment here! (And no, I have not taken all of these quotes directly from the source. I am unfortunately not that well read - yet.)

Science

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." - Charles Darwin

"What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel works of nature!" - Charles Darwin. As beautiful and exciting as I find nature, I'm not blind to the fact that it's also callous and uncaring. This quote by Darwin pretty much sums up the problem of theodicy from a biologist's point of view.

"As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications." - Charles Darwin

"Evolution is to the social sciences as statues are to birds: a convenient platform upon which to deposit badly digested ideas." - Steve Jones (Almost Like a Whale/Darwin's Ghost)

"The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from the latin mundus, meaning 'the world'. And the world is anything but dull: The world is wonderful. There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality." - Richard Dawkins. This quote I've also added in a shortened format (only the last two sentences).

"Thankfully, there are scientists who do search for answers to the question of the origin of the immune system. It's the immune system. It's our defense against debilitating and fatal diseases. The scientists who wrote those books and articles toil in obscurity, without book royalties or speaking engagements. Their efforts help us combat and cure serious medical conditions. By contrast, Professor Behe and the entire intelligent design movement are doing nothing to advance scientific or medical knowledge and are telling future generations of scientists, don't bother." - From closing argument of attorney Eric Rothschild in the Dover ID trial

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." - Theodosius Dobzhansky

"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other, yet to be discovered." - Stephen Jay Gould

"I approve of your empirical zeal!" - Stephen Fry in QI (S06E07)

Atheism, Skepticism and Religion

"I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time." - Isaac Asimov

"The universal opinion over thousands of years that the earth was flat never flattened its spherical shape by one inch." - Isaac Asimov. Stephen Fry claimed on QI that the idea that people used to believe that the world is flat is in fact false. Either way, Asimov's point stands: Believing something does not make it so.

"From the definition [of God] it follows that nothing is better than God. Also, God must be better than me. Therefore, nothing is better than me. So, I must be God. Now, I certainly exist. So, God must too. Spotting the flaw is left as an excercise to the reader." - Daniel Harbour (An Intelligent Person's Guide to Atheism). It's been a long time since I read Harbour's book, but this quote I've always kept with me. It pokes fun at the ontological argument.

"Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do." - Bertrand Russell

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - S. H. Roberts

"Arguing with a creationist is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll knock over the pieces, crap on the board, and fly back to it's flock to claim victory." - anon. I do wish whomever conceived of this wonderful line would step up and claim it so we all could properly attribute!

"It is often said, mainly by the 'no-contests', that although there is no positive evidence for the existence of God, nor is there evidence against his existence. So it is best to keep an open mind and be agnostic. At first sight that seems an unassailable position, at least in the weak sense of Pascal's wager. But on second thoughts it seems a cop-out, because the same could be said of Father Christmas and tooth fairies. There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?" - Richard Dawkins. Why I'm not an agnostic.

"Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people - otherwise there would be no religious people!" - Dr House (House MD). Greg House is my hero.

"You know, I get it if people are just looking for a way to fill the holes. But they want the holes. They wanna live in the holes. And they go nuts when someone else pours dirt in their holes. CLIMB OUT OF YOUR HOLES, PEOPLE!" - Dr House (House MD)

"Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" - Douglas Adams

"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." - Douglas Adams

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

"It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity." - Abraham Lincoln

"I have no need for that hypothesis." - marquis de Laplace's famous answer when Napoleon asked why there was no mention of God in his book on astronomy.

"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. ... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - Albert Einstein

"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." - Albert Einstein. Now can we please end the discussion about whether Einstein was totally religious or not? Geez!

"I love God! He's so deliciously evil!" - Stewie Griffin (Family Guy)

"The universe doesn't care what you believe. The wonderful thing about science is that it doesn't ask for your faith, it just asks for your eyes." - XKCD

Random stuff

"A common man marvels at uncommon things; a wise man marvels at the commonplace." - Confucius

"Always look on the bright side of life!" - Monty Python

"Occasionally I'm callous and strange." - Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"I am mad, I think. I am mad therefore I think. I am mad therefore I think I am." - Kate Atkinson (Human Croquet). A reminder that I'm not always rational. No one is.

"Beekeepers! They gotta want to be: I wanna be a beekeeper, I wanna KEEP BEES. Don't want them to get away, I wanna keep 'em. They have too much freedom! I want bees on elastic so when they get pollen they COME BACK HERE! My father was a beekeeper before me. His father was a beekeeper before him. I wanna walk in their footsteps! And their footsteps were like this: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH! I'M COVERED IN BEES!" - Eddie Izzard

"Look at me, still talking when there's science to do / When I look out there it makes me glad I'm not you / I've experiments to run / There is research to be done / On the people who are still alive" - GLaDoS, Portal