104 quotes
When a neo-Darwinian asks, “Why?” he is really asking “How did this come about?” He is a historian.
The Red Queen (1993)
Just as human nature is the same everywhere, so it is recognizably the same as it was in the past.
The Red Queen (1993)
A gene is by definition the descendant of a gene that was good at getting into future generations.
The Red Queen (1993)
And even where I am wrong about human nature, I am not wrong that there is such a nature to be sought.
The Red Queen (1993)
Monogamy, enforced by law, religion, or sanction, does seem to reduce murderous competition between men.
The Red Queen (1993)
The longer your generation time, the more genetic mixing you need to combat your parasites.
The Red Queen (1993)
Wishful thinking that they are the same will be mere propaganda and no favor to either sex.
The Red Queen (1993)
Below the surface of every banality and cliché there lies irony, cynicism, and profundity.
The Red Queen (1993)
In species where the females get nothing useful from their mates, they seem to choose on aesthetic criteria alone.
The Red Queen (1993)
There is, therefore, such a thing as a universal human nature, common to all people.
The Red Queen (1993)
As every bird-watcher knows, the beauty of a bird’s song is inversely correlated with the colorfulness of its plumage.
The Red Queen (1993)
If females have an existing aesthetic preference, it is only logical that males will evolve to exploit that preference.
The Red Queen (1993)
Without this evolutionary history in mind, it is impossible to explain the different sexual mentalities of men and women.
The Red Queen (1993)
Differences cannot be appealed to when they suit and denied when they do not.
The Red Queen (1993)
In any case, no moral conclusions of any kind can be drawn from evolution.
The Red Queen (1993)
Women cannot increase their fecundity by taking more mates; men can.
The Red Queen (1993)
The technological problems of suburban life may be a million miles from those of the Pleistocene savanna, but the human ones are not.
The Red Queen (1993)
In behavior, as in appearance, every human individual is unique.
The Red Queen (1993)
The process of choosing somebody to have sex with, which used to be known as falling in love, is mysterious, cerebral, and highly selective.
The Red Queen (1993)
One of the legacies of being an ape is intergroup violence.
The Red Queen (1993)