Species evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world, and not at all as if they were moving toward a set goal. - George Gaylord Simpson
Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind. - George Gaylord Simpson
If a sect does officially insist that its structure of belief demands that evolution be false, then no compromise is possible. An honest and competent biology teacher can only conclude that the sect's beliefs are wrong and that its religion is a false one. - George Gaylord Simpson
The greatest impact of the Darwinian revolution...was that it completed the liberation from superstition and fear that began in the physical sciences a few centuries before. Man, too, is a natural phenomenon. [in "The evolutionary concept of man", 1972, p. 35.] - George Gaylord Simpson
I don't think that evolution is supremely important because it is my specialty; it is my specialty because I think it is supremely important. [In: Edward J. Larson (2004) Evolution, Modern Library. p. 250] - George Gaylord Simpson
From horses we may learn not only about the horse itself but also about animals in general, indeed about ourselves and about life as a whole. - George Gaylord Simpson