United States paleontologist and popularizer of science (1941-2002)
In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples mightstart to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not meritequaltime in physics classrooms. Stephen Jay Gould»
The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. Stephen Jay Gould»
The truebeauty 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). Stephen Jay Gould»
