“You contain a trillion copies of a large, textual document written in a highly accurate, digital code, each copy as voluminous as a substantial book. I'm talking, of course, of the DNA in your cells.”

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder (1996)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You contain a trillion copies of a large, textual document written in a highly accurate, digital code, each copy as vol…" by Richard Dawkins?
Richard Dawkins photo
Richard Dawkins 322
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author 1941

Related quotes

Viktor Schauberger photo

“You must look at the processes of motion in the macrocosmos and microcosmos accurately, and copy them!”

Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) austrian philosopher and inventor

Implosion Magazine, No. 14, p. 19 (Callum Coats: Energy Evolution (2000))
Implosion Magazine

Jack Ma photo

“You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.”

Jack Ma (1964) Chinese businessman

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05iht-wbspot06.4109874.html, Spotlight: Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba.com - Business - International Herald Tribune, by SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOPJAN. 5, 2007 (The New York Times)

Charles Lamb photo
Rex Stout photo
Kent Hovind photo
Thomas Gainsborough photo

“Fools talk of imitation and copying, all is imitation.”

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) English portrait and landscape painter

Quote of Gainsborough in a Letter to John Henderson, 27th June 1773
1770 - 1788

Eoin Colfer photo
Bart D. Ehrman photo

“We don't even have copies of the copies of the originals, or copies of the copies of the copies of the originals. What we have are copies made later—much later.”

Introduction
Misquoting Jesus (2005)
Context: It is one thing to say that the originals were inspired, but the reality is that we don't have the originals—so saying they were inspired doesn't help me much, unless I can reconstruct the originals. Moreover, the vast majority of Christians for the entire history of the church have not had access to the originals, making their inspiration something of a moot point. Not only do we not have the originals, we don't have the first copies of the originals. We don't even have copies of the copies of the originals, or copies of the copies of the copies of the originals. What we have are copies made later—much later. In most instances, they are copies made many centuries later. And these copies all differ from one another, in many thousands of places. As we will see later in this book, these copies differ from one another in so many places that we don't even know how many differences there are. Possibly it is easiest to put it in comparative terms: there are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.

Related topics