Stephen Jay Gould

In the end, science is a human enterprise.

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best—and therefore never scrutinize or question.

We are the offspring of a contingent history, not the predictable product of any law of nature.

Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information. It is a creative human activity, its geniuses driven by values, hopes, and fears, like all other humans.

The fossil record is a history of stable species, not of gradual change.

Evolution is a series of unique events, not a predictable progression.

We are here because one odd group of fishes never stopped making babies.

The history of life is not a ladder of progress, but a bush of diversification.

The greatest impediment to scientific discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.

The most important scientific breakthroughs often come from looking at old data in new ways.

Nature does not make leaps.

The human mind is a product of evolution, not a special creation.

The universe is not obliged to make sense to you.

The history of life is not a story of inevitable progress, but of contingent events.

The greatest challenge to the human intellect is to understand the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.

Evolution is not a theory of progress, but a theory of change.

The fossil record is a testament to the power of natural selection, not to the inevitability of progress.

The human species is a twig on the tree of life, not the trunk.

Science is a human endeavor, and as such, it is subject to human biases and errors.

The history of life is a story of extinction, not just of survival.