“Perhaps I am just a hopeless rationalist, but isn't fascination as comforting as solace? Isn't nature immeasurably more interesting for its complexities and its lack of conformity to our hopes? Isn't curiosity as wondrously and fundamentally human as compassion?”

"Tires to Sandals", p. 324
Eight Little Piggies (1993)

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Stephen Jay Gould 274
American evolutionary biologist 1941–2002

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