“No one doubts that biological universals exist. We must sleep, eat, and grow older, and we are not about to give up procreation; almost all our social institutions are influenced by these imperatives.”
Source: An Urchin in the Storm (1987) "Genes on the Brain", p. 113
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Stephen Jay Gould274
American evolutionary biologist 1941–2002Related quotes
James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China
(Hudson Taylor’s Choice Sayings: A Compilation from His Writings and Addresses. London: China Inland Mission, n.d., 52).
Variant: Let us give up our work, our thoughts, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into His hand, and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about, or to make trouble about.
Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist
Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (1968), Dangers, Police Dictatorships
“I believe that our existence is first cosmic, then biological and then social”
Vangelis (1943) Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock, and orchestral music
1979
Context: I’ve always had a tendency, since my early childhood, to design the world not through society, but through a cosmic truth. I believe that our existence is first cosmic, then biological and then social. Unfortunately, so much importance is placed on our social life that it hides this fact. I think that people feel social pressure and understand that these systems, currently prevent happiness.
J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)
Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Problem of Industry, pp. 19–20
Jim Fowler (1930–2019) American zoologist
http://www.lindberghfoundation.org/events/past.html
Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia
Freedom from Want radio talk, July 10, 1942 (the fifth of "The Forgotten People" series)
Wilderness Years (1941-1949)
Source: http://menziesvirtualmuseum.org.au/transcripts/the-forgotten-people/63-chapter-5-freedom-from-want