Darwin's Watch Quotes

“Wizards don’t believe in gods. They didn’t deny their existence, of course. They just didn’t believe. It was nothing personal; they weren’t actually rude about it. Gods were a visible part of narrativium that made things work, that gave the world its purpose. It was just that they were best avoided close up.”
― Terry Pratchett , Darwin's Watch

“I am sorry. It is hard to convey five-dimensional ideas in a language evolved to scream defiance at the monkeys in the next tree”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III

“Allegedly, 50 per cent of Americans believe that the Earth was created less than 10,000 years ago, which if true says something rather sad about the most expensive education system in the world.”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III

“Von außen – und erst recht von innen – sieht der Prozess wissenschaftlicher Forschung ungeordnet und verwirrend aus. Man ist versucht zu glauben, Wissenschaftler seien selber unordentlich und verwirrt. In gewisser Hinsicht sind sie es – das gehört zur Forschung. Wenn man wüsste, was man tut, wäre es keine Forschung”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch

“No, not yet. That’s young Darwin,’ said Ponder. ‘Very keen on collecting all sorts of wildlife. Collecting was enormous popular among the English of this century. Bones, shells, butterflies, birds, other people’s countries … all sorts of things.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

“When he was Vice-Chancellor at Warwick University, the biologist Sir Brian Follett remarked: 'I don't like scientists on my committees. You don't know where they'll stand on any issue. Give them some more data, and they change their minds!' He understood the joke: most politicians wouldn't even realise it was a joke.”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch

“The alleged superiority of belief systems compared to science, when it comes to these deep mysteries, stems not from a failure of science, but from the willingness of belief systems to accept authority without question.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

“It is no coincidence that we inhabit a universe whose vacuum energy lies in the Goldilocks zone, because we are life as we know it. If we lived in any other kind of universe, we would be life as we don't know it. Not impossible, but not us.”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch

“Antonio Damasio has written three books: Looking for Spinoza, Descartes’ Error, and The Feeling of What Happens. These”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III

“One of the biggest religions on Roundworld was founded by a carpenter's son!' Ponder snarled. 'For years, the most powerful person on the planet was an actor! There's got to be room for Darwin!”
― Terry Pratchett, Darwin's Watch