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If [the emergence of the human species] was unique, as may perhaps have been the appearance of life itself, then before it did appear its chances of doing so were infinitely slender. The universe was not pregnant with life nor the biosphere with man. Our number came up in the Monte Carlo game.

— Jacques Monod Jacques (1971)

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More quotes by Jacques Monod

The first scientific postulate is the objectivity of nature: nature does not have any intention or goal.

Man knows at last that he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the universe, whence which he has emerged by chance.

Chance and Necessity (1976)

Having determined the constants of growth in the presence of different carbohydrates, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to determine the same constants in paired mixtures of carbohydrates.

There is in science, however, quite a gap between belief and certainty. But would one ever have the patience to wait and to establish the certainty if the inner conviction were not already there?

Anything found to be true of E. coli must also be true of elephants.

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