Skip to main content

Objectivity cannot be equated ...

Objectivity cannot be equated with mental blankness; rather, objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences and then subjecting them to especially harsh scrutiny - and also in a willingness to revise or abandon your theories when the tests fail (as they usually do).

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Honorable errors do not count ...

Honorable errors do not count as failures in science, but as seeds for progress in the quintessential activity of correction.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

...we must be wary of granting...

...we must be wary of granting too much power to natural selection by viewing all basic capacities of our brain as direct adaptations.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Precise adaptation, with each ...

Precise adaptation, with each part finely honed to perform a definite function in an optimal way, can only lead to blind alleys, dead ends, and extinction.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

If there is any consistent ene...

If there is any consistent enemy of science, it is not religion, but irrationalism.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Results rarely specify their c...

Results rarely specify their causes unambiguously. If we have no direct evidence of fossils or human chronicles, if we are forced to infer a process only from its modern results, then we are usually stymied or reduced to speculation about probabilities. For many roads lead to almost any Rome.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

The world, unfortunately, rare...

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

If genius has any common denom...

If genius has any common denominator, I would propose breadth of interest and the ability to construct fruitful analogies between fields.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

All evolutionary biologists kn...

All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence... I had to place myself amidst the variation.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

It has become, in my view, a b...

It has become, in my view, a bit too trendy to regard the acceptance of death as something tantamount to intrinsic dignity. Of course I agree with the preacher of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to love and a time to die - and when my skein runs out I hope to face the end calmly and in my own way. For most situations, however, I prefer the more martial view that death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

I hardly recognize what I do w...

I hardly recognize what I do well. I just do it.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

I love the wry motto of the Pa...

I love the wry motto of the Paleontological Society, meant both literally and figuratively, for hammers are the main tool of our trade: Frango ut patefaciam - I break in order to reveal.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Contrary to current cynicism a...

Contrary to current cynicism about past golden ages, the abstraction known as 'the intelligent layperson' does exist - in the form of millions of folks with a passionate commitment to continuous learning.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

I dreamed of becoming a scient...

I dreamed of becoming a scientist, in general, and a paleontologist, in particular, ever since the Tyrannosaurus skeleton awed and scared me.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

I don't think academic writing...

I don't think academic writing ever was wonderful. However, science used to be much less specialized.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Evolution is one of the two or...

Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Death is the ultimate enemy - ...

Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

The world is too complex for s...

The world is too complex for subsumption under any general theory of change.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Nature is what she is - amoral...

Nature is what she is - amoral and persistent.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Science is not 'organized comm...

Science is not 'organized common sense'; at its most exciting, it reformulates our view of the world by imposing powerful theories against the ancient, anthropocentric prejudices that we call intuition.

Stephen Gould 276 quotes

Добрые, щедрые, великодушные: 6 советских актеров, которые были всеобщими любимчиками

23

Советских актёров часто ставят в пример как образец духовной силы, национальной гордости и внутренней красоты. Они стали символами эпохи, носителями культуры и нравственности. Но, как известно, за кул...

Десять кинозвезд, которые отлично поют

83

Актеры — люди творческие, но кто бы мог подумать, что некоторые из них скрывают прекрасный голос. В эпоху раннего Голливуда актеров с музыкальными способностями было немало — это считалось скорее норм...

Мэрилин Монро, Ким Кардашьян и другие

115

Неузнаваемая Ким Кардашьян в объективе фотографа Маркуса Клинко, 2009 год. Памела Андерсон в самой первой съёмке для журнала «Playboy», 1990. На фото голливудская актриса Dorothy Lamour и шимпанзе Джи...

Что стало с детьми-звездами: Рэдклифф и компания спустя годы

219

Расскажем, как сложилась судьба актеров, которые начинали сниматься еще в детстве.
Остаться на вершине в Голливуде удаётся не каждому, особенно если путь начался в детстве. Одни актёры теряются из-за...

Жизнь за границей: как изменились судьбы 7 уехавших телеведущих

541

Два года назад отечественное телевидение столкнулось с беспрецедентной кадровой тектоникой — целая группа ярких и узнаваемых ведущих стремительно исчезла с экранов федеральных каналов. Эти лица долгие...

Кира Найтли, Деми Мур и другие

165

Кира Найтли на страницах журнала к выходу фильма «Пиджак», 2005. Следы динозавра, раскопанные в русле реки Палакси. Техас. США. 1952г. Самая большая женщина рядом с самым маленьким мужчиной, 1922 год....