A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.

— E. O. Wilson

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.

— E. O. Wilson

By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.

— E. O. Wilson

Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.

— E. O. Wilson

Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.

— E. O. Wilson

Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.

— E. O. Wilson

For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization.

— E. O. Wilson

If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.

— E. O. Wilson

If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.

— E. O. Wilson

If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.

— E. O. Wilson