"Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components."
"If we are still here to witness the destruction of our planet some five billion years or more hence, then we will have achieved something so unprecedented in the history of life that we should be willing to sing our swansong with joy - Sic Transit Gloria Mundi."
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Source: Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History”, p.142, W. W. Norton & Company
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