The whole concert of animate nature arose entirely from annoying noises.

- Jacques Monod

Man finally knows that he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the Universe, from which he emerged by accident.

- Jacques Monod

A curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it.

- Jacques Monod

What is true for E. coli is also true for the elephant.

- Jacques Monod

There are living systems; there is no'living matter'.

- Jacques Monod

In science, self-satisfaction is death. Personal self-satisfaction is the death of the scientist. Collective self-satisfaction is the death of the re…

- Jacques Monod

Every living being is also a fossil. Within it, all the way down to the microscopic structure of its proteins, it bears the traces if not the stigmat…

- Jacques Monod

Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance. Neither his destiny nor his du…

- Jacques Monod

Chance alone is at the source of every innovaton, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, only chance, absolute but blind liberty is at the ro…

- Jacques Monod