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Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous – indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.

— Richard Dawkins River out of Eden (1995)

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Nature

More quotes by Richard Dawkins

Eternity is best spent under a general anesthetic – which is what is going to happen.

Interview with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience (2019)

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

River out of Eden (1995)

There are people in the world who desperately want not to have to believe in Darwinism.

The Blind Watchmaker (1986)

In fact writing a computer program is a pretty good way to summarize knowledge about any set of rules.

Climbing Mount Improbable (1996)

The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust.

The Greatest Show on Earth (2009)

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The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

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Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in its whole body.

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Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Dawkins (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.