You can make some inferences about a man's character if you know something about the conditions in which he has survived and prospered.
Interpretation
A person's character can be understood by examining their life circumstances and how they have thrived despite challenges.
This quote by Richard Dawkins emphasizes the idea that one's character is often shaped by the environment and conditions one encounters throughout life. By analyzing the adversities and experiences that a person has faced and successfully navigated, we can gain deeper insights into their true nature, values, and resilience, reflecting a broader understanding of human behavior and development.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a discussion about personal growth during difficult times.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment that we can savor - and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible.
1) Never trust a cop in a raincoat. 2) Beware of enthusiasm and of love, both are temporary and quick to sway. 3) If asked if you care about the world's problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks, he will never ask you again. 4) Never give your real name. 5) If ever asked to look at yourself, don't look. 6) Never do anything the person standing in front of you can't understand. 7) Never create anything, it will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life.
Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.
Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.
I well remember it being said to me by an occultist of great experience that two things are necessary for safety in occultism, right motives and right associates.
The biggest difference between England and America is that England has history, while America has geography.
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