"To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story—amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific."

Henry Gee Science See all quotes by Henry Gee →

React to this quote

More by Henry Gee

“The intervals of time that separate the fossils are so huge that we cannot say anything definite about their possible connection through ancestry and descent.”

“It's evident that Darwin saw evolution not as progressive or improving, but as an activity that happens moment by moment. From this it is clear that evolution has no plan. It has neither memory nor foresight. No vestige of cosmic strivings from some remote beginning; no prospect of revelatory culmination in some transcendent end.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The history of the apple is too absurd. Whether the apple fell or not, how can any one believe that such a discovery could in that way be accelerated or retarded? Undoubtedly, the occurrence was somet…"

— Carl Friedrich Gauss

Science1777–1855

#science

"...when he was tested again and it came up positive. Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms... He has since tested negative."

— Melania Trump

Politics1970

#youth

"I’ve always been very interested in the short story. Compared to the often exhausting world of the novel, the short story offers a quicker reward, and there’s something appealing about its greater spo…"

— Reinaldo Arenas

Literature1943–1990

#books

"Most of the writers I know come from a variety of backgrounds: history, journalism, engineering, physics. The common element here is not what you study, but the fact that you learn how to study, to do…"

— Michael A. Stackpole

Literature1957

#writing