Stephen Jay Gould

The only thing worse than being wrong is being boring.

The history of science is a history of human error.

I am a firm believer in the power of a good anecdote, especially when it supports my own prejudices.

The greatest discovery is not to find a new land, but to see with new eyes.

The universe is a grand and glorious accident.

The only thing that is certain is uncertainty.

Science is a search for truth, not a search for comfort.

The world is a strange and wonderful place, and we are lucky to be a part of it.

I have often been accused of being a 'lumper' rather than a 'splitter,' and I plead guilty to the charge.

The history of life is a story of contingency, not progress.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.

We are not the goal of evolution, but a lucky accident.

We are the accidental result of an unplanned process, the highest form of life on a small planet that is itself the product of a random cosmic event. We are alone in the universe, and we are insignificant.

The most important message of evolution is that we are not the pinnacle of creation, but merely one twig on a vast and sprawling tree of life.

Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective truth. It is a creative human activity, driven by curiosity and imagination.

The human mind is a product of evolution, and it is therefore limited by its evolutionary history. We cannot understand everything, and we should not expect to.

Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but in the structure of the universe itself. The laws of physics are beautiful, and so are the patterns of life.

The meaning of life is not to be found in some external purpose, but in the act of living itself. We create our own meaning through our choices and actions.

Death is not the end of everything, but merely a transition. We are all part of a larger cycle of life and death, and our individual lives are just a small part of that cycle.

The greatest challenge facing humanity is to reconcile our scientific understanding of the world with our spiritual needs. We need to find a way to live in a world without gods, but with meaning and purpose.