"Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary sense." (Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, p. 2)
"Unless they are manipulated by a parasite, the only group that animals ever favour over the individual is the family." (Ridley, The Origins of Virtue, p. 176)
"For one of Hamilton's readers the impact of the idea of the selfish gene was tragic. George Price taught himself genetics in order to disprove Hamilton's stark conclusion that altruism was just genetic selfishness, but instead proved it indisputably correct - indeed, even improved the algebra and made some important contributions to the theory himself. The two began to collaborate, but Price, who was showing increasing signs of mental instability, turned to religion for solace, gave away all his possessions to the poor and committed suicide in a bare and cold London squat, some letters from Hamilton among his few possessions." (Ridley 1996, The Origins of Virtue, p. 19)
"Anything that can use the resources of the world to get copies of itself made is alive; the most likely form for such a thing to take is a digital message - a number, a script or a word." (Ridley 1999, Genome, p. 15)
"In the beginning was the word. The word proselytised the sea with its message, copying itself unceasingly and forever. The word discovered how to rearrange chemicals so as to capture little eddies in the stream of entropy and make them live. The word transformed the land surface of the planet from a dusty hell to a verdant paradise. The word eventually blossomed and became sufficiently ingenious to build a porridgy contraption called a human brain that could discover and be aware of the word itself." (Ridley 1999, Genome, p. 11)
"The idea of the genome as a book is not, strictly speaking, even a metaphor. It is literally true. A book is a piece of digital information, written in linear, one-dimensional and one-directional form and defined by a code that transliterates a small alphabet of signs into a large lexicon of meanings through the order of their groupings. So is a genome." (Ridley 1999, Genome, pp. 6-7)
