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Daily life is a compromised blend of posturing for the sake of role-playing and of varying degrees of self-revelation. Under stressful conditions even the "true" self cannot be precisely defined, as Erving Goffman observes. ...Little wonder that the identity crisis is a major source of modern neuroticism, and that the urban middle class aches for a return to a simpler existence.

— E. O. Wilson On Human Nature (1978)

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More quotes by E. O. Wilson

The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another.

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)

If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)

Much of good science — and perhaps all of great science — has its roots in fantasy.

Letters to a Young Scientist (2013)

To know how scientists engage in visual imagery is to understand how they think creatively.

Letters to a Young Scientist (2013)

The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and only later works like a bookkeeper.

Letters to a Young Scientist (2013)

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