The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.

Well, let me tell you, ants are the dominant insects. They make up as much as a quarter of the biomass of all insects in the world. They are the principal predators. They're the cemetery workers.

I'm very much a Christian in ideals and ethics, especially in terms of belief in fairness, a deep set obligation to others, and the virtues of charity, tolerance and generosity that we associate with traditional Christian teaching.

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.

Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.

Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.

There doesn't seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs.

It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.

If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.

There is no better high than discovery.

Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input.

Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.

Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.

It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.

If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.

Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.

The education of women is the best way to save the environment.

Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.

Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.

We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.

When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.

If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.

The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.