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These concerns (that is, about differences being used to justify unequal treatment) are fair. But just because people have exaggerated sexual differences in the past does not mean they cannot exist. There is no a priori reason for assuming that men and women have identical minds and no amount of wishing it were so will make it so if it is not so. Difference is not inequality.

— Matt Ridley The Red Queen (1993)

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More quotes by Matt Ridley

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.

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Attribution

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