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Top 30 Ernst Mayr Quotes (2025 Update)

Ernst Mayr Quote: “I have the honesty to say I’m an Atheist. There is nothing that supports the idea of a personal God.”

1. “I have the honesty to say I’m an Atheist. There is nothing that supports the idea of a personal God.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Life is simply the reification of the process of living.”

2. “Life is simply the reification of the process of living.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “On Earth, among millions of lineages or organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence ; this makes me believe its utter improbablity.”

3. “On Earth, among millions of lineages or organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence ; this makes me believe its utter improbablity.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature.”

4. “A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Scientific progress consists in the development of new concepts.”

5. “Scientific progress consists in the development of new concepts.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification.”

6. “As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun.”

7. “Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of existence to another.”

8. “According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of existence to another.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole.”

9. “There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life.”

10. “In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation characters which promote or guarantee reproductive isolation when the external barriers break down.”

11. “A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation characters which promote or guarantee reproductive isolation when the external barriers break down.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “It seems to me that for Darwin the pulsing of evolutionary rates was a strictly vertical phenomenon.”

12. “It seems to me that for Darwin the pulsing of evolutionary rates was a strictly vertical phenomenon.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.”

13. “Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “The most consequential change in man’s view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.”

14. “The most consequential change in man’s view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “There is more to biology than rats, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis, and E. coli.”

15. “There is more to biology than rats, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis, and E. coli.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Given the fact of evolution, one would expect the fossils to document a gradual steady change from ancestral forms to the descendants. But this is not what the paleontologist finds. Instead, he or she finds gaps in just about every phyletic series.”

16. “Given the fact of evolution, one would expect the fossils to document a gradual steady change from ancestral forms to the descendants. But this is not what the paleontologist finds. Instead, he or she finds gaps in just about every phyletic series.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory but simply failed to ask the right questions.”

17. “The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory but simply failed to ask the right questions.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts.”

18. “Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “In neither his definition nor the examples illustrating what memes are does Dawkins mention anything that would distinguish memes from concepts.”

19. “In neither his definition nor the examples illustrating what memes are does Dawkins mention anything that would distinguish memes from concepts.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Evolution thus is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection.”

20. “Evolution thus is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Living in an entirely different physical as well as biotic environment, such a population would have unique opportunities to enter new niches and to select novel adaptive pathways.”

21. “Living in an entirely different physical as well as biotic environment, such a population would have unique opportunities to enter new niches and to select novel adaptive pathways.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “To take an unequivocal stand, it seems to me, is of greater heuristic value and far more likely to stimulate constructive criticism than to evade the issue.”

22. “To take an unequivocal stand, it seems to me, is of greater heuristic value and far more likely to stimulate constructive criticism than to evade the issue.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows.”

23. “Definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science.”

24. “It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Isolating mechanisms are biological properties of individuals that prevent the interbreeding of populations that are actually or potentially sympatric.”

25. “Isolating mechanisms are biological properties of individuals that prevent the interbreeding of populations that are actually or potentially sympatric.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “New gene pools are generated in every generation, and evolution takes place because the successful individuals produced by these gene pools give rise to the next generation.”

26. “New gene pools are generated in every generation, and evolution takes place because the successful individuals produced by these gene pools give rise to the next generation.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “I feel that one species, mankind, doesn’t have the right to exterminate.”

27. “I feel that one species, mankind, doesn’t have the right to exterminate.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “I had found again and again that the most aberrant population of a species – often having reached species rank, and occasionally classified even as a separate genus – occurred at a peripheral location, indeed usually at the most isolated peripheral location.”

28. “I had found again and again that the most aberrant population of a species – often having reached species rank, and occasionally classified even as a separate genus – occurred at a peripheral location, indeed usually at the most isolated peripheral location.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Indeed, I was unable to find any evidence whatsoever of the occurrence of a drastic evolutionary acceleration and genetic reconstruction in widespread, populous species.”

29. “Indeed, I was unable to find any evidence whatsoever of the occurrence of a drastic evolutionary acceleration and genetic reconstruction in widespread, populous species.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “The major novelty of my theory was its claim that the most rapid evolutionary change does not occur in widespread, populous species, as claimed by Most geneticists, but in small founder populations.”

30. “The major novelty of my theory was its claim that the most rapid evolutionary change does not occur in widespread, populous species, as claimed by Most geneticists, but in small founder populations.”

Ernst Mayr Quote: “Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation.”

31. “Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation.”

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