Ernst W. Mayr Quotes

#1. Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century.

Ernst W. Mayr

#2. 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.

Ernst W. Mayr

#3. The funny thing is if in England, you ask a man in the street who the greatest living Darwinian is, he will say Richard Dawkins. And indeed, Dawkins has done a marvelous job of popularizing Darwinism. But Dawkins' basic theory of the gene being the object of evolution is totally non-Darwinian.

Ernst W. Mayr

#4. 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 W. Mayr

#5. No amphibian succeeded in adapting to salt water.

Ernst W. Mayr