I will argue that every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished, and never to be surrendered without a struggle.

— Edward O. Wilson

People would rather believe than know.

— Edward O. Wilson

Real scientists do not take vacations. They take field trips...

— Edward O. Wilson

Science, its imperfections notwithstanding, is the sword in the stone that humanity finally pulled. The question it poses, of universal and orderly materialism, is the most important that can be asked in philosophy and religion.

— Edward O. Wilson

[Scientific humanism is] the only worldview compatible with science's growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature.

— Edward O. Wilson

[S]elfish members win within groups, but groups of altruists best groups of selfish members. (63)

— Edward O. Wilson

Social intelligence was therefore always at a high premium. A sharp sense of empathy can make a huge difference, and with it in an ability to manipulate, to gain cooperation, and to deceive.

— Edward O. Wilson

The best way to live in this real world is to free ourselves of demons and tribal gods.

— Edward O. Wilson

The predisposition to religious belief is an ineradicable part of human behavior. Mankind has produced 100,000 religions. It is an illusion to think that scientific humanism and learning will dispel religious belief. Men would rather believe than know... A kind of Darwinist survival of the fittest has occurred with religions... The ecological principle called Cause's law holds that competition is maximal between species with identical needs... Even submission to secular religions such as Communism and guru cults involve willing subordination of the individual to the group. Religious practices confer biological advantage. The mechanisms of religion include (1) objectification (the reduction of reality to images and definitions that are easily understood and cannot be refuted), (2) commitment through faith (a kind of tribalism enacted through self-surrender), (3) and myth (the narratives that explain the tribe's favored position on the earth, often incorporating supernatural forces struggling for control, apocalypse, and millennium).

— Edward O. Wilson

The race is now on between the techno scientific and scientific forces that are destroying the living environment and those that can be harnessed to save it. . . . If the race is won, humanity can emerge in far better condition than when it entered, and with most of the diversity of life still intact.

— Edward O. Wilson