Goethe died in 1832. As you know, Goethe was very active in science. In fact, he did some very good scientific work in plant morphology and mineralogy. But he was quite bitter at the way in which many scientists refused to grant him a hearing because he was a poet and therefore, they felt, he couldn't be serious.

I emphatically do not assert the general 'truth' of this philosophy of punctuational change. Any attempt to support the exclusive validity of such a grandiose notion would border on the nonsensical.

Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.

A lot of scientists hate writing. Most scientists love being in the lab and doing the work and when the work is done, they are finished.

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

A man does not attain the status of Galileo merely because he is persecuted; he must also be right.

I am not, personally, a believer or a religious man in any sense of institutional commitment or practice. But I have a great respect for religion, and the subject has always fascinated me, beyond almost all others (with a few exceptions, like evolution and paleontology).