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All moral doctrine, all practical suggestions about how we ought to live, depend on some belief about what human nature is like.

— Mary Midgley Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979)

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More quotes by Mary Midgley

The notion that we "have a nature" far from threatening the concept of freedom, is absolutely essential to it.

The symbolism of meat-eating is never neutral. To himself, the meat-eater seems to be eating life. To the vegetarian, he seems to be eating death.

Animals and Why They Matter (1983)

Let us start by considering why the attempt to glorify science on its own cannot work.

Are You an Illusion (2014)

But if it only means "likely to have many descendants," then there is no reason for treating it as an advantage at all.

Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979)

Selection does not work by cutthroat competition between individuals, but by favouring whatever behavior is useful to the group.

Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979)

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