“What is found in biology is mechanisms, mechanisms built up, bit by bit, over billions of years.”— Francis Crick
“Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view.”— Richard Dawkins
“The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.”— Richard Dawkins
“I confidently expect that in the future we shall have less debate about the derivation of species, and more observation.”— Asa Gray
“The idea that the sick should be cured is a modern, and in some ways a biologically absurd, idea.”— George C. Williams
“Natural selection is not the wind which propels the vessel, but the rudder which, by friction, now on this side and now on that, shapes the course.”— Asa Gray
“The mind is a kludge, a patchwork of different mechanisms that have been cobbled together over eons of evolution.”— Marvin Minsky
“In explaining adaptation, one should assume the adequacy of the simplest form of natural selection... unless the evidence clearly shows that this theory does not suffice.”— George C. Williams
“Is it not reasonable to anticipate that our understanding of the human body will be greatly enriched by knowledge of the expectation that natural selection has built into our design?”— George C. Williams
“Evolutionary biologists have failed to realize that they work with two more or less incommensurable domains: that of information and that of matter.”— George C. Williams
“Only by a theory of the costs of meiosis and recombination can we hope to understand the ultimate function of sexual reproduction.”— George C. Williams
“In the practical world of computing, it is rather uncommon that a program, once it performs correctly and satisfactorily, remains unchanged forever.”— Niklaus Wirth