E. O. Wilson Quotes

I think it's true we look forward to enormous amounts of information, but I think we would be better off if we thought about the kinds of wisdom and thoughtfulness that we need in order to handle the amount of information ahead.

In politics, information is superabundant—what is needed is judgement and selectivity in dealing with that information.

Experts often possess more data than judgment.

We're not that much smarter than we used to be, even though we have much more information - and that means the real skill now is learning how to pick out the useful information from all this noise.

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.

We mistake being able to get lots of information from everywhere very quickly with actually getting knowledge.

I'm kind of fascinated by this idea that we can surround ourselves with information: we can just pile up data after data after data and arm ourselves with facts and yet still not be able to answer the questions that we have.

I don't think we should have less information in the world. The information age has yielded great advances in medicine, agriculture, transportation and many other fields. But the problem is twofold. One, we are assaulted with more information than any one of us can handle. Two, beyond the overload, too much information often leads to bad decisions.

I'm not a big believer in doing too much research - I think you can get lost in it. You can get constrained by it, which I think is a mistake. But if you've done your homework, the audience feels it.

Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.

Never before in human history has more information been available to more people. But at the same time, never before in human history has more bad information been available to more people.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Policymakers have to make judgments based on the best intelligence they get.

There is a tendency to mistake data for wisdom…

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Every good businessman or woman carefully analyzes all the available facts before making a decision.

It is my job to know the difference between information and intelligence.

We are drowning in information.

If you want to become a biologist, it doesn't help to go into the Harvard biology library and all the information is there for you. You have to know what to look for and the internet is the same, just magnified.

Distilling truth from overwhelming amounts of information is the essence of leadership.

Knowledge has the power to help us avoid making bad choices that produce bad results.

When everybody has access to an avalanche of information, becoming a master thinker is very important in your life-long security.

Distinguishing the signal from the noise requires both scientific knowledge and self-knowledge: the serenity to accept the things we cannot predict, the courage to predict the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Consistently wise decisions can only be made by those whose wisdom is constantly challenged.

I received 500,000 discrete bits of information today, of which maybe 25 are important. My job is to make some sense of it.