Stephen Jay Gould - Quodid

About

Picture of Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould ( GOOLD; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, historian of science, and one of the most widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1996, Gould was hired as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University, after which he divided his time teaching between there and Harvard.

Quotes from Stephen Jay Gould

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

—Stephen Jay Gould

knowledge stories

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.

—Stephen Jay Gould

learning knowledge certainty science arrogance centrality

Human consciousness arose but a minute before midnight on the geological clock. Yet we mayflies try to bend an ancient world to our purposes, ignorant perhaps of the messages buried in its long history. Let us hope that we are still in the early morning of our April day.

—Stephen Jay Gould

It is not every question that deserves an answer.

—Stephen Jay Gould

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.

—Stephen Jay Gould

We pass through this world but once.

—Stephen Jay Gould

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

—Stephen Jay Gould