The proof of evolution lies in those adaptations that arise from improbable foundations.

I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms.

All interesting issues in natural history are questions of relative frequency, not single examples. Everything happens once amidst the richness of nature. But when an unanticipated phenomenon occurs again and again—finally turning into an expectation—then theories are overturned.

We are storytelling animals, and cannot bear to acknowledge the ordinariness of our daily lives.

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.

Pictures are not incidental frills to a text; they are essences of our distinctive way of knowing.

Science is not 'organized common sense'; at its most exciting, it reformulates our view of the world by imposing powerful theories against the ancient, anthropocentric prejudices that we call intuition.