Mythology is wondrous, a balm for the soul. But its problem… - Stephen Jay Gould

" "
Mythology is wondrous, a balm for the soul. But its problems cannot be ignored. At worst, it buys inspiration at the price of physical impossibility […]. At best, it purveys the same myopic view of history that made this most fascinating subject so boring and misleading in grade school as a sequential take of monarchs and battles.

Stephen Jay Gould

Sources available for members. Sign up free to see where this quote comes from

English

Collect this quote

About Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American geologist, paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular-science author, who spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He was one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation.

Biography information from Wikiquote

All quotes from Stephen Jay Gould Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Stephen Jay Gould:

Edward O. Wilson Charles Darwin Thomas Henry Huxley Richard Dawkins Carl Sagan

Additional quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

The true beauty of nature is her amplitude; she exists neither for nor because of us, and possesses a staying power that all our nuclear arsenals cannot threaten (much as we can easily destroy our puny selves).

We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.

The common error lies in failing to recognize that apparent trends can be generated as by-products, or side consequences, of expansions and contractions in the amount of variation within a system, and not by anything directly moving anywhere.

Mythology is wondrous, a balm for the soul. But its problems cannot be ignored. At worst, it buys inspiration at the price of physical impossibility … - Stephen Jay Gould

About Stephen Jay Gould

Unlimited Quote Collections

Additional quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

Works in ChatGPT, Claude, or Any AI