#ed

Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#been #blessed #brilliant #debt #directions

In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#colleagues #dismantled #harvard #i #mathematician

So in my freshman year at the University of Alabama, learning the literature on evolution, what was known about it biologically, just gradually transformed me by taking me out of literalism and increasingly into a more secular, scientific view of the world. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#alabama #biologically #evolution #freshman #freshman year

We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#clear #earth #forests #living #most

But once the ants and termites jumped the high barrier that prevents the vast variety of evolving animal groups from becoming fully social, they dominated the world. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#ants #barrier #becoming #dominated #evolving

I had reached a point in my career in which I was ready to try something new in my writing, and the idea of a novel has always been in the back of my mind. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#back #been #career #had #i

I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and fully aware of themselves. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#becoming #create #fully #honest #humans

I was a senior in high school when I decided I wanted to work on ants as a career. I just fell in love with them, and have never regretted it. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#career #decided #fell #high #high school

Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#ideas #imagined #own #part #real

In addition I wanted to write a Southern novel, because I'm a Southerner. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#because #i #novel #southern #southerner