Tag: quotes

Review and Quotes from Richard Dawkins' The Selfish

Notes and Quotes from Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is one of the most important science books of the 20th century. When I read it in 2024, I wished that I had read it earlier. I opened the book looking for the origins of the concept of the meme, but I got much more than what I hoped to get. Not only did I learn about the meme (and that we’re gene machines), but I also learned to play the game of life a little better. (Trust me when I say that you’ll even gain an understanding of dating strategies and tactics by reading this book.) Most of all, I was happy to discover that, scientifically (or statistically) speaking, nice guys can finish first. And that’s good news, isn’t it?

Here are some of my favorite quotes from The Selfish Gene:

We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

The only kind of entity that has to exist in order for life to arise, anywhere in the universe, is the immortal replicator.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

… even with selfish genes at the helm, nice guys can finish first.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

When we die there are two things we can leave behind us: genes and memes.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature” (1836)

A man is fed, not that he may be fed, but that he may work.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

All the facts in natural history taken by themselves, have no value, but are barren like a single sex. But marry it to human history, and it is full of life.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate — debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be forgone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

Every universal truth which we express in words, implies or supposes every other truth.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

The true philosopher and the true poet are one, and a beauty, which is truth, and a truth, which is beauty, is the aim of both.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

To the wise, therefore, a fact is true poetry, and the most beautiful of fables.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

Know then, that the world exists for you.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)
Quote from Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling

Quotes from Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

Here are five great quotes from Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling:

One became great through expecting the possible, another by expecting the eternal; but he who expected the impossible became greater than all.

– Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

Whatever one generation learns from another, it can never learn from the predecessor the genuinely human factor. In this respect every generation begins afresh, has no task other than that of any previous generation, and comes no further, provided the latter didn’t shirk its task and deceive itself.

– Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

Fools and young people talk about everything being possible for a human being. But that is a great mistake. Everything is possible spiritually speaking, but in the finite world there is much that is not possible.

– Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

All that can save him is the absurd; and this he grasps by faith.

– Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

No person who has learned that to exist as the individual is the most terrifying thing of all will be afraid of saying it is the greatest.

– Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling