# Dragons of Eden - Author: [Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) - Quotes: 25 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden ## Quotes > A mutation in a DNA molecule within a chromosome of a skin cell in my index finger has no influence on heredity. Fingers are not involved, at least directly, in the propagation of the species. p. 27 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/a-mutation-in-a-dna.md) > There is a popular contention that half or more of the brain is unused. From an evolutionary point of view this would be quite extraordinary: why should it have evolved if it had no function? But actually the statement is made on very little evidence. p. 31 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/there-is-a-popular.md) > Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/absence-of-evidence.md) > Note that in all this interaction between mutation and natural selection, no moth is making a conscious effort to adapt to a changed environment. The process is random and statistical. p. 28 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/note-that-in-all.md) > Without these experimental tests, very few physicists would have accepted general relativity. There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brilliance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives. p. 193 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/without-these-experimental.md) > The integrity of the experimenters in the face of this unexpected finding is breathtaking. (It is difficult to imagine any experiment that would convince leading practitioners of many political or religious philosophies of the superiority of a competing doctrine.) p. 210 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/the-integrity-of-the.md) > The search for patterns without critical analysis, and rigid skepticism without a search for patterns, are the antipodes of incomplete science. The effective pursuit of knowledge requires both functions. p. 192 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/the-search-for.md) > There is no doubt that right-hemisphere intuitive thinking may perceive patterns and connections too difficult for the left hemisphere; but it may also detect patterns where none exist. Skeptical and critical thinking is not a hallmark of the right hemisphere. And unalloyed right-hemisphere doctrines, particularly when they are invented during new and trying circumstances, may be erroneous or paranoid. p. 189 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/there-is-no-doubt.md) > Natural selection has served as a kind of intellectual sieve, producing brains and intelligences increasingly competent to deal with the laws of nature. This resonance, extracted by natural selection, between our brains and the universe may help explain a quandary set by Einstein: The most incomprehensible property of the universe, he said, is that it is so comprehensible. p. 242 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/natural-selection-has.md) > At any rate, both because of the clear trend in the recent history of biology and because there is not a shred of evidence to support it, I will not in these pages entertain any hypotheses on what used to be called the mind-body dualism, the idea that inhabiting the matter of the body is something made of quite different stuff, called mind. p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/at-any-rate.md) > Evolution often uses this strategy. Indeed, the standard evolutionary practice of increasing the amount of genetic information as organisms increase in complexity is accomplished by doubling part of the genetic material and then allowing the slow specialization of function of the redundant set. p. 183 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/evolution-often-uses.md) > That in nonarithmetic operations the small and slow human brain can still do so much better than the large and fast electronic computer is an impressive tribute to how cleverly the brain is packaged and programmed—features brought about, of course, by natural selection. Those who possessed poorly programmed brains eventually did not live long enough to reproduce. p. 224 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/that-in-nonarithmetic.md) > Anatomy is not destiny, but it is not irrelevant either. p. 199 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/anatomy-is-not.md) > It is important to distinguish between the amount of information and the quality of that information. p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/it-is-important.md) > There is no way to tell whether the patterns extracted by the right hemisphere are real or imagined without subjecting them to left-hemisphere scrutiny. On the other hand, mere critical thinking, without creative and intuitive insights, without the search for new patterns, is sterile and doomed. To solve complex problems in changing circumstances requires the activity of both cerebral hemispheres: the path to the future lies through the corpus callosum. p. 190 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/there-is-no-way.md) > While ritual, emotion and reasoning are all significant aspects of human nature, the most nearly unique human characteristic is the ability to associate abstractly and to reason. Curiosity and the urge to solve problems are the emotional hallmarks of our species; and the most characteristically human activities are mathematics, science, technology, music and the arts--a somewhat broader range of subjects than is usually included under the “humanities.” Indeed, in its common usage this very word seems to reflect a peculiar narrowness of vision about what is human. Mathematics is as much a “humanity” as poetry. p. 81 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/while-ritual-emotion.md) > In general, human societies are not innovative. They are hierarchical and ritualistic. Suggestions for change are greeted with suspicion: they imply an unpleasant future variation in ritual and hierarchy: an exchange of one set of rituals for another, or perhaps for a less structured society with fewer rituals. And yet there are times when societies must change. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present” was Abraham Lincoln’s description of this truth. Much of the difficulty in attempting to restructure American and other societies arises from this resistance by groups with vested interests in the status quo. Significant change might require those who are now high in the hierarchy to move downward many steps. This seems to them undesirable and is resisted. p. 199 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/in-general-human.md) > To me it is not in the least demeaning that consciousness and intelligence are the result of “mere” matter sufficiently complexly arranged; on the contrary, it is an exalting tribute to the subtlety of matter and the laws of Nature. p. 221 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/to-me-it-is-not.md) > Those at too great a distance may, I am well aware, mistake ignorance for perspective. p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/those-at-too.md) > The entire evolutionary record on our planet, particularly the record contained in fossil endocasts, illustrates a progressive tendency toward intelligence. There is nothing mysterious about this: smart organisms by and large survive better and leave more offspring than stupid ones. p. 240 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/the-entire-evolutionary.md) > The price we pay for the anticipation of our future is anxiety about it. Foretelling disaster is probably not much fun; Pollyanna was much happier than Cassandra. But the Cassandric components of our nature are necessary for survival. p. 74 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/the-price-we-pay.md) > The entire recent history of biology shows that we are, to a remarkable degree, the results of the interactions of an extremely complex array of molecules; and the aspect of biology that was once considered its holy of holies, the nature of the genetic material, has now been fundamentally understood in terms of the chemistry of its constituent nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, and their operational agents, the proteins. p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/the-entire-recent.md) > Once intelligent beings achieve technology and the capacity for self-destruction of their species, the selective advantage of intelligence becomes more uncertain. p. 240 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/once-intelligent-beings.md) > I proffer the following ideas with a substantial degree of trepidation; I know very well that many of them are speculative and can be proved or disproved on the anvil of experiment. p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/i-proffer-the.md) > My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings—what we sometimes call “mind”—are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/my-fundamental-premise.md)