If evolution almost always occurs by rapid speciation in small, peripheral isolates, then what should the fossil record look like? We are not likely to detect the event of speciation itself. It happens too fast, in too small a group, isolated too far from the ancestral range.

Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview.

Can I pay any higher tribute to a man [George Gaylord Simpson] than to state that his work both established a profession and sowed the seeds for its own revision? If Simpson had reached final truth, he either would have been a priest or would have chosen a dull profession. The history of life cannot be a dull profession.

With copious evidence ranging from Plato's haughtiness to Beethoven's tirades, we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a prickly lot.

Our searches for numerical order lead as often to terminal nuttiness as to profound insight.

Always be suspicious of conclusions that reinforce uncritical hope and follow comforting traditions of Western thought.

Human life is the result of a glorious evolutionary accident.