“If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.”
Source: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998), p. 262.
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Edward O. Wilson 83
American biologist 1929Related quotes

“Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.”
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
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“To know the history of science is to recognize the mortality of any claim to universal truth.”
Source: Reflections on Gender and Science
Source: Talking Science: Language, Learning, and Values. 1990, p. 149

“We have not been taught to kill our bodies, but to kill our passions.”
Saying 184
Context: Abba Isaac came to see Abba Poemen and found him washing his feet. As he enjoyed freedom of speech with him he said, "How is it that others practice austerity and treat their bodies hardly?" Abba Poemen said to him, "We have not been taught to kill our bodies, but to kill our passions."