Stephen Jay Gould Pathways Quotations

At a minimum, in explaining evolutionary pathways through time, the constraints imposed by history rise to equal prominence with the immediate advantages of adaptation.

The pathways that have led to our evolution are quirky, improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable.

Humans arose ... as a fortuitous and contingent outcome of thousands of linked events, any one of which could have occurred differently and sent history on an alternative pathway that would not have led to consciousness.