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If genius has any common denominator, I would propose breadth of interest and the ability to construct fruitful analogies between fields.

— Stephen Jay Gould The Panda's Thumb (1980)

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Intelligence

More quotes by Stephen Jay Gould

If there is any consistent enemy of science, it is not religion, but irrationalism.

Ever Since Darwin (1977)

Great theories are expansive; failures mire us in dogmatism and tunnel vision.

Eight Little Piggies (1993)

Details are all that matters: God dwells there, and you never get to see Him if you don't struggle to get them right.

Eight Little Piggies (1993)

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

The Panda's Thumb (1980)

The study of social setting does not imply either the irrelevance or nonexistence of a factual world out there.

An Urchin in the Storm (1987)

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Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.

Socrates

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Like every 'intellectual', a philosophy teacher is a petty bourgeois. When he opens his mouth, it is petty-bourgeois ideology that speaks: its resources and ruses are infinite.

Louis Althusser Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968)

Attribution

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