Ernst Mayr Quotes

I did not claim that speciation occurs only in founder populations. ~ Ernst Mayr

This new consensus seemed so compelling that Ernst Mayr, the dean of modern Darwinians, opened the ashcan of history for a deposit of Geoffrey's ideas about anatomical unity. ~ Stephen Jay Gould

Definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows. ~ Ernst Mayr

Living in an entirely different physical as well as biotic environment, such a population would have unique opportunities to enter new niches and to select novel adaptive pathways. ~ Ernst Mayr

There is more to biology than rats, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis, and E. coli. ~ Ernst Mayr

Anyone who writes about Darwin's theory of evolutionin the singular, without segregating the theories of gradual evolution, common descent, speciation, and the mechanism of natural selection, will be quite unable to discuss the subject competently. ~ Ernst Mayr

All I claimed was that when a drastic change occurs, it occurs in a relatively small and isolated population. ~ Ernst Mayr

Indeed, I was unable to find any evidence whatsoever of the occurrence of a drastic evolutionary acceleration and genetic reconstruction in widespread, populous species. ~ Ernst Mayr

Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun. ~ Ernst Mayr

In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life. ~ Ernst Mayr

There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole. ~ Ernst Mayr

Paleontologists had long been aware of a seeming contradiction between Darwin's postulate of gradualism, confirmed by the work of population genetics, and the actual findings of paleontology. Following phyletic lines through time seemed to reveal only minimal gradual changes but no clear evidence for any change of a species into a different genus or for the gradual origin of an evolutionary novelty. Anything truly novel always seemed to appear quite abruptly in the fossil record. ~ Ernst Mayr

In neither his definition nor the examples illustrating what memes are does Dawkins mention anything that would distinguish memes from concepts. ~ Ernst Mayr

Life is simply the reification of the process of living. ~ Ernst Mayr

The issue, as correctly emphasized by Carl Sagan, is the probability of the evolution of high intelligence and an electronic civilization on an inhabited world. Once we have life (and almost surely it will be very different from life on Earth), what is the probability of its developing a lineage with high intelligence? On Earth, among millions of lineages of organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence; this makes me believe in its utter improbability. ~ Ernst Mayr

I had found again and again that the most aberrant population of a species - often having reached species rank, and occasionally classified even as a separate genus - occurred at a peripheral location, indeed usually at the most isolated peripheral location. ~ Ernst Mayr

I feel that one species, mankind, doesn't have the right to exterminate ~ Ernst Mayr

As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification. ~ Ernst Mayr

Two forms or species are sympatric, if they occur together, that is if their areas of distribution overlap or coincide. Two forms (or species) are allapatric, if they do not occur together, that is if they exclude each other geographically. The term allopatric is primarily useful in denoting geographic representatives. ~ Ernst Mayr

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts ~ Ernst Mayr

On Earth, among millions of lineages or organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence ; this makes me believe its utter improbablity. ~ Ernst Mayr

Ernst Mayr characterized the Cartesian view of animals as dumb automatons.2 ~ Frans De Waal

Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language. ~ Ernst Mayr

The important thing is that short and strenuous reverence be paid to the spirit of discipline. Three things keep a body of troops in fighting form: fighting spirit, strength and discipline. Fighting spirit – as I have said before – is the least easy to influence. It is the great prerequisite and justification of war – the spirit of the race and of the blood pledged to the last drop. There lie the roos of the strength whose full development is dependent on outward conditions, fresh air nourishment, clothing, and a lot else. When this soil fails fighting spirit is like a seedling plated in arenaceous quartz – it goes on growing for a while of its own resources and then gives out. It is a tragic destiny when a great enterprise comes to grief from this cause. Finally, the purpose of discipline is to economize and direct the two elements so that they are brought to bear on one aim with overwhelming force. It is a means, not an end; it is in seeing it in its true proportion that the real fighter is distinguished from the soldier. It is one of the danger-points of the Prussian system that it easily loses sight of the spirit in the letter and of real strength in the empty show of it. One of the most terrible apparitions is the sheer drill-master – a machine that goes by clockwork. It is bound to break down for the mere reason that in war there is no rule but the exception. ~ Ernst Junger

To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature. ~ Ernst Fischer

I would like to repeat that I do not fancy myself as anything special for being an anarch. My emotions are no different from those of the average man. Perhaps I have pondered this relationship a bit more carefully and am conscious of a freedom to which "basically" everybody is entitled – a freedom that more or less dicates his actions. ~ Ernst Junger

We should listen less to the opinions of those who either overtly promote or stubbornly reject complementary and alternative medicine without acceptable evidence. The many patients who use complementary and alternative medicine deserve better. Patients and healthcare providers need to know which forms are safe and effective. Its future should (and hopefully will) be determined by unbiased scientific evaluation. ~ Edzard Ernst

Decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create ... facts, essays, poems - do you want to speak or to sing? ~ Ernst Haas

What radical constructivism may suggest to educators is this: the art of teaching has little to do with the traffic of knowledge, its fundamental purpose must be to foster the art of learning. ~ Ernst Von Glasersfeld

As long as we have a youth that stands for all that is strong and manly our future is assured. ~ Ernst Junger

For an event that was wholly created in the poisonous psychological warfare kitchens of the Second World War, run by the ministries of propaganda in many countries, not just by the British or the Americans, but also the Russians and undoubtedly the world Jewish organizations. ~ Ernst Zundel

Women with bare arms are not allowed into church, but they let naked Jews dig their own graves. ~ Ernst Bloch

If our dreams were more regular, more connected, more stable, they would also have more practical importance for us. ~ Ernst Mach

We can write the new chapters in a visual language whose prose and poetry will need no translation. ~ Ernst Haas

Nothing is constant but change! All existence is a perpetual flux of "being and becoming!" That is the broad lesson of the evolution of the world. ~ Ernst Haeckel

Gradually I became aware of details: a company of French soldiers was marching through the streets of the town. They broke formation, and went in single file along the communication trench leading to the front line. Another group followed them. ~ Ernst Toller

Science is the most complete presentment of facts with the least expenditure of thought ~ Ernst Mach

If you really examine your own opinions, you'll normally come up with a better one ~ Ernst Happel

The anarch wages his own wars, even when marching in rank and file ~ Ernst Junger

Grip had been hungry ever since the first youthful spots on his sheets. Wanting to try what others only fantasized about, finding his way to the fearless ones who laughed back, the ones who also wanted it. Games with new positions had started before the end of adolescence. Later: bruises, leather straps, and candles - anything that excited - on airplanes, in hotel elevators with the emergency stop button pushed. ~ Robert Karjel

German test pilot Ernst Canter noted in his logbook that while in 1910 he flew at a height of eighty feet, two years later he was ascending to almost 5,000. ~ Max Hastings

Experiments were not attempted at that time, we did not believe in the usefulness of the concept anyway, and I finished my thesis in 1962 with a feeling like an artist balancing on a high rope without any interested spectators. ~ Richard Ernst

I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new. ~ Ernst Haas

Economics operates legitimately and usefully within a 'given' framework which lies altogether outside the economic calculus. We might say that economics does not stand on its own feet, or that it is a 'derived' body of thought - derived from meta- economics. If the economist fails to study meta-economics, or, even worse. If he remains unaware of the fact that there are boundaries to the applicability of the economic calculus, he is likely to fall into a similar kind of error to that of certain medieval theologians who tried to settle questions of physics by means of biblical quotations. Every science is beneficial within its proper limits but becomes evil and destructive as soon as it transgresses them. The ~ Ernst F. Schumacher

In every artist there is poetry. In every human being there is the poetic element. We know, we feel, we believe. ~ Ernst Haas

Then they held my mouth shut for a while and hit me in the face, and with a whip across chest and back. I then collapsed, rolled on the floor, always keeping face down and no longer replied to any of their questions. ~ Ernst Thalmann

I have not seen proven proof that [climate change] is entirely man-made. ~ Joni Ernst

Anyone who directly and honestly reproduces that force which impels him to create belongs to us. ~ Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The succession of individuals, connected by reproduction and belonging to a species, makes it possible for the specific form itself to last for ages. In the end, however, the species is temporary; it has no "eternal life." After existing for a certain period, it either dies or is converted by modification into other forms. ~ Ernst Haeckel

Since in fact liturgical traditions, vestments, church vessels, etc., were immediately removed wherever Calvinism infiltrated or Reformed ideas even gained influence in the church's polity, the reaction which it caused in Lutheran areas was a conscious propensity for ceremonies. Henceforth, therefore, the celebration of an emphatically liturgical service was among the visible signs by which the Lutheran character of confession was demonstrated outwardly. ~ Ernst Walter Zeeden

The anarch is oriented to facts, not ideas. He fights alone, as a free man, and would never dream of sacrificing himself to having one inadequacy supplant another and a new regime triumph over the old one. In this sense, he is closer to the philistine; the baker whose chief concern is to bake good bread; the peasant, who works his plow while armies march across his fields. ~ Ernst Junger

Photography is a bridge between science and art. It brings to science what it needs most, the artistic sense, and to art the proof that nothing can be imagined which cannot be matched in the counterpoints of nature. ~ Ernst Haas

Long periods of peace and quiet favor certain optical illusions. Among them is the assumption that the invulnerability of the home is founded upon the constitution and safeguarded by it. In reality, it rests upon the father of the family who, accompanied by his sons, appears with the ax on the threshold of his dwelling. ~ Ernst Junger

I was at the front for thirteen months, and by the end of that time the sharpest perceptions had become dulled, the greatest words mean. ~ Ernst Toller

Later we learned that it was one of our own men hanging on the wire. Nobody could do anything for him; two men had already tried to save him, only to be shot themselves. ~ Ernst Toller

Belief in these solitary men springs from a longing for a fraternity without name, for a deeper spiritual relationship than is possible between human beings. ~ Ernst Junger

How a club is run is what matters to me. The fewer board members, the better. If it's 18, I'm just not interested. ~ Ernst Happel

You cannot stoke the fires of prejudice against German people and then not find that somewhere, sometime down the road it doesn't discharge. ~ Ernst Zundel

Refine your senses through the great masters of music, painting, and poetry. ~ Ernst Haas

A critical attitude, like activity, is one of the fundamental characteristics of our time. Both are interdependent. If the critical attitude should dwindle, there would be more peace and less intelligence, to the benefit of the essential. Neither criticism nor activity, however, can steer the course in such a direction - this means that higher forces are involved. ~ Ernst Junger

A man in music, as one in love, either lives it or talks about it; seldom both. ~ Ernst Bacon

I was stolen from my family by Navajo raiders when I was fourteen, and taken in by a Navajo family who had lost a daughter of their own." Josefina ~ Kathleen Ernst

What does Nietzsche say of fighting men? 'You must have as enemies only those whom you hate, but not those whom you despise. You must be proud of your enemy, and then the enemy's success is your success also. ~ Ernst Junger

You can do anything. Nothing is forbidden. ~ Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Being doped is a pleasure you pay for. There was always opium there for the people
in the end it tainted their whole faith. If the Church had not always stood so watchfully behind the ruling powers, there would not have been such attacks against everything it stood for
although of course it may have been competing with them for the first place among the rulers, as in the Middle Ages. Whenever it was a question of keeping the serfs, and then the paid slaves down, the dope-dealers came unfailingly to the help of the oppressors. ~ Ernst Bloch

Science, as long as it limits itself to the descriptive study of the laws of nature, has no moral or ethical quality and this applies to the physical as well as the biological sciences. ~ Ernst Boris Chain

And the spirit of revolution will not die while the hearts of these workers continue to beat. ~ Ernst Toller

None of us can know today if tomorrow morning we will not be counted as part of a group considered outside the law. In that moment the civilized veneer of life changes, as the state props of well-being disappear and are transformed into omens of destruction. The luxury liner becomes a battleship, or the black jolly roger and the red executioner's flag are hoisted on it. ~ Ernst Junger

The photographic enthusiast likes to lure us into a darkened room in order to display his slides on a silver screen. Aided by the adaptability of the eye and by the borrowed light from the intense projector bulb, he can achieve those relationships in brightness that will make us dutifully admire the wonderful autumn tints he photographed on his latest trip. As soon as we look at a print of these photographs by day, the light seems to go out of them. It is one of the miracles of art that the same does not happen there. ~ Ernst Gombrich

If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself! ~ Ernst Rohm

The word ecology, coined by the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel (initially as oecology) in 1866. derives from the Greek oikos, "referring originally to the family household and its daily operations and maintenance." The term ecology is therefore intended to refer to the study of the conditions of existence that pertain to, and the interactions between, all the entities that make up our larger, cosmic household here upon earth. ~ Warwick Fox

Of course, differences existed between military service under Henry IV, Louis XIII, or Louis XIV, but one always served on horseback. Today these magnificent creatures were doomed. They had disappeared from the fields and streets, from the villages and towns, and for years they had not been seen in combat. Everywhere they had been replaced by automatons. Corresponding to this change was a change in men: they became more mechanical, more calculable, and often you hardly felt that you were among human beings. Only at rare moments did I still hear a sound from the past – the sound of bugles at sunrise and the neighing of horses, which made our hearts tremble. All that has gone. ~ Ernst Junger