The Quote Mine Project

• List of quotes sorted by author
• How to search for quotes
• Evolution of the Quote Mine Project / What's New

Original Quote Mine Project

• Introduction

1. Difficult to establish phylogeny -- Ayala and Valentine
2. Fossil record has disappointingly few gradual series -- Futuyma
3. Sudden diversification of multi-cellular life -- Eldredge
4. Little evidence for phyletic gradualism -- Gould, Luria, and Singer
5. Difficult to find fossils intermediate in morphology and stratigraphic position -- Cracraft
6. Taxa appear suddenly -- Eldredge
7. Species overlap in time -- Stanley
8. Fossils cloud attempts at phylogeny -- Fortey
9. No empirical evidence for sustained trends -- Gould and Eldredge
10. No phylum level designs since Cambrian -- Valentine and Jablonski
11. Trends are after the fact render of evolutionary history -- Eldredge
12. Punctuated equilibria rests on shaky ground -- Ricklefs
13. Fossils do not prove that evolution occurs -- Kitts
14. Paleontologists paid enormous price for Darwin's argument -- Gould
15. Paleontologists cheat in reconstructing animals -- Bengtsons
16. Multicellular animals appear with a bang -- Gould
17. Fossils caused Darwin more grief than joy -- Gould
18. Major groups appear suddenly -- Futuyma
19. Taxa appear suddenly and without intermediates -- Eldredge
20. Every paleontologist knows taxa appear suddenly -- Simpson
21. The gaps are real -- Wesson
22. Groups abruptly appear and disappear -- Newell
23. Contradiction of Darwin's gradualism and paleontology -- Mayr
24. Fossils do not reveal gradual transformations -- Bowler
25. An uneven or jerky fossil record -- Raup
26. The major problem in proving evolution is the fossil record -- Czarnecki
27. Little evidence of modification within species -- Smith
28. The principle problem is stasis -- Williamson
29. Members of a biota remain stable -- Eldredge
30. Fossil species remain unchanged -- Woodroff
31. Paleontologists have long known about stasis and abrupt appearance -- Gould
32. Paleontologists have been searching in vain -- Eldredge
33. Evolutionary interpretation is a circular argument -- Kemp
34. Ladder of evolution is not borne out by evidence -- Newell
35. Nothing much happens to most species -- Gould
36. Non-change was tacitly acknowledged -- Gould
37. Paleontologists knew it but preferred to ignore it -- Eldredge and Tattersall
38. We have many gaps in key areas -- McGowan
39. Absence of gradual intermediate transitional forms -- Eldredge
40. Punctuationists and gradualists both agree the gaps are real -- Dawkins
41. Fossil record has precious little intermediate forms -- Gould
42. Transitional forms are inordinately scarce -- Brouwer
43. No need to apologize for the fossil record -- Neville
44. Fossil record flatly fails to substantiate finely-graded change -- Eldredge and Tattersall
45. Gaps can not be easily explained by poor fossil record -- Eldredge
46. Fossil record more complete than generally accepted -- Paul
47. Links missing where we most want them -- Jepsen, Mayr, and Simpson
48. Deep dark secrets of paleontology -- Cracraft
49. No evolutionist uses the fossil record as evidence -- Ridley
50. Inability to construct functional intermediates -- Gould
51. Constancy about the fossil gaps -- Hitching
52. No evidence for transitional creatures -- The Guardian Weekly
53. Fossil record should be fife with transitional forms -- Schwartz
54. Evolution requires intermediate forms and paleontology does not provide -- Kitts
55. Gaps are a persistent problem -- Williamson
56. If I knew of any evolutionary transitions -- Patterson
57. Spontaneous generation arising to evolution is scientifically impossible --Wald
58. An article of faith -- Urey
59. The only acceptable explanation is creation -- Lipson
60. Plant fossils favor creation -- Corner
61. Based on faith alone -- More
62. Nothing contrary to conservative creationists -- Ambrose
63. No recognizable way for conscience life to have emerged -- Eccles
64. Pseudometaphysical hypothesis -- Smith
65. Origin of life is still a mystery -- d'Aubigne
66. Too complex to have occurred by chance -- Rubin
67. Evolution has grave defects -- Fleischmann
68. Macroevolution fails at every level -- Haines
69. No definitive evidence that viruses, bacteria, or protozoa are inter-related -- Kerkut
70. No proof life was not created -- Jostrow
71. Paleontologists say fossils support gradualism knowing that it does not -- Eldredge
72. Well-documented lineages don't withstand scrutiny -- Paul
73. Abominable mystery -- Darwin
74. Origin of life appears to be almost a miracle -- Crick
75. The most obvious and serious objection against the theory -- Darwin
76. Devoted myself to a fantasy -- Darwin
77. No evidence for the origin of fish -- Norman
78. No known fish directly ancestral to land vertebrates -- Stahl
79. No scientists can prove evolution -- Millikan
80. Evolution accepted because creation is incredible -- Watson
81. Unproved and unprovable -- Keith
82. We cannot prove a single species has changed -- Darwin
83. Rightfully reject my whole theory -- Darwin
84. My theory would absolutely break down -- Darwin
85. That fact would be fatal to the theory of descent -- Darwin
86. Lungfish have origins firmly based on nothing -- White

Second Quote Mine Project: Darwin Quotes

• Introduction

1. Darwin conscious that his work was speculation beyond bounds of true science -- Darwin
2. Darwin admits his book is too hypothetical and authors persuade themselves of own dogma -- Darwin
3. Darwin admits facts can be shown against all points he made in Origin of Species -- Darwin
4. Darwin admits that the fossil record presents valid arguments against his theory -- Darwin
5. Darwin staggered by the grave difficulties in his theory -- Darwin
6. Darwin admits that innumerable transitional fossils called for by his theory are not found -- Darwin
7. Darwin admits that he cannot prove any species has changed due to Natural Selection -- Darwin
8. Evolution of the eye is absurd -- Darwin
9. Follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem best -- Darwin
10. Civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races - Darwin
11. Civilized Caucasian races will eliminate the lower races - Darwin

Third Quote Mine Project: Gould, Eldredge and Punctuated Equilibria Quotes

• Introduction

1. The notion of species as 'natural kinds' fits splendidly with creationist tenets - Gould
2. The extreme rarity of transitional forms persist as the trade secret of paleontology - Gould
3. Smooth intermediates are impossible to construct; mosaics like Archaeopteryx do not count - Gould and Eldredge
4. The example of horse evolution has long been known to be wrong - Rensberger
5. Evidence from fossils now points overwhelmingly away from the classical Darwinism - Adler
6. We date rocks by their fossils and can't then talk about evolutionary patterns in the record - Eldredge
7. Three coexisting lineages of hominids refute evolutionary ladder - Gould
8. We cannot trace any fossil ape to any living species; just when our lineage began is where no fossil evidence exists - Gould
9. Hominid fossils are mere fragments and scraps and only a basis for speculation and storytelling - Gould
10. An error in a program generating evolutionary trees debunked an African source for humans - Gould
11. No examples of phyletic evolution found in fossil record - Stanley
12. Failure to find a clear 'vector of progress' in life's history is most puzzling fact of fossil record - Gould
13. Evolution never seems to happen - Eldredge
14. The fossil record with its abrupt transitions offers no support for gradual change - Gould
15. I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory - Gould

Fourth Quote Mine Project: Assorted Quotes

• Introduction

1. There are no transitional fossils showing the origin of insects - Carpenter
2. How feathers arose initially from reptilian scales defies analysis - Stahl
3. Higher categories are a mystery and appear abruptly without transitional forms - Raup and Stanley
4. Transitionals between taxa are unknown; neither gradualism nor punctuated equilibrium explain changes in body plans - Valentine and Erwin
5. There are no transitional fossils showing the origins of rodents - Romer
6. The Darwinian Fallacy is an emperor without clothes - Hsü
7. Evolution is an unproven theory and therefore exactly parallel to special creation - Matthews
8. Most biologists can conduct their work without reference to evolutionary ideas - Wilkins
9. Even if all data point to an Intelligent Designer, science excludes hypothesis as not naturalistic - Todd
10. Theoretical foundations and the experimental evidence for neo-Darwinism is weak - Orr and Coyne
11. The last 20 years of research has led us to a great Darwinian paradox - McDonald
12. The eukaryotic cell is a kind of wonderland fantasy biologists construct in their imaginations - Dyer and Obar
13. The law of Christ is incompatible with the law of evolution -- Keith
14. New fossils forced into prexisting stories -- Gee
15. Systematic effect of mutation is degeneration -- Wright
16. The very idea of the missing link, always shaky, is now completely untenable -- Gee
17. Darwinism is not testable; it is a metaphysical research programme -- Popper
18. DNA is like a program -- Gates
19. Spontaneous generation is impossible but believed -- Wald
20. Evolution cannot be refuted by any possible observations - Ehrlich and Birch
21. Too few fossils to support human evolution -- J. S. Jones

Fifth Quote Mine Project: Geologic Column Quotes

• Introduction

1. Use of rocks to date fossils and fossils to date rocks is circular reasoning - O'Rourke
2. Fossils are the best and most accurate method of dating rocks - Ager
3. Isn't it circular that evolution is documented by geology and geology is documented by evolution - Azar
4. From a strictly philosophical standpoint, geologists argue in a circle - Rastall
5. Danger of circularity is still present - Kitts

Incidentals: Project articles on Quote Mining

• The Discovery Institute Quote Mines Judge Jones
• The Discovery Institute Quote Mines Stephen Jay Gould