Evolution is a process of constant branching and expansion.

History does include aspects of directionality, and the present range of causes and phenomena does not exhaust the realm of past possibilities.

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.

Sure we fit. We wouldn't be here if we didn't. But the world wasn't made for us and it will endure without us.

I hardly recognize what I do well. I just do it.

Taxonomy (the science of classification) is often undervalued as a glorified form of filing-with each species in its folder, like a stamp in its prescribed place in an album; but taxonomy is a fundamental and dynamic science, dedicated to exploring the causes of relationships and similarities among organisms. Classifications are theories about the basis of natural order, not dull catalogues compiled only to avoid chaos.