TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index L > Thomas E. Lovejoy Quotes

Thumbnail of Thomas E. Lovejoy (source)
Thomas E. Lovejoy
(22 Aug 1941 - 25 Dec 2021)

American biologist and conservationist who played a central role in the establishment of conservation biology, and has been called the “Godfather of Biodiversity.” Lovejoy was an early advocate for the preservation of the Amazonian rain forest.


Science Quotes by Thomas E. Lovejoy (6 quotes)


[A contemporary study] predicted the loss of two-thirds of all tropical forests by the turn of the century. Hundreds of thousands of species will perish, and this reduction of 10 to 20 percent of the earth’s biota will occur in about half a human life span. … This reduction of the biological diversity of the planet is the most basic issue of our time.
— Thomas E. Lovejoy
Foreword, written for Michael Soulé and Bruce Wilcox (eds.), papers from the 1978 International Conference on Conservation Biology, collected as Conservation Biology (1980), ix. As quoted and cited in Timothy J. Farnham, Saving Nature's Legacy: Origins of the Idea of Biological Diversity (2007), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biological Diversity (5)  |  Biota (2)  |  Century (319)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Forest (161)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Issue (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifespan (9)  |  Loss (117)  |  Most (1728)  |  Occur (151)  |  Perish (56)  |  Planet (402)  |  Predict (86)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Species (435)  |  Study (701)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

Different kinds of animals and plants live together in different places: camels in deserts, whales in the seas, gorillas in tropical forests. The totality of this diversity from the genetic level, through organisms to ecosystems and landscapes is termed collectively biological diversity.
— Thomas E. Lovejoy
From Reith Lecture, 'Biodiversity', on BBC Radio 4 (19 Apr 2000). Transcript and audio on BBC website.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biological Diversity (5)  |  Camel (12)  |  Desert (59)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Ecosystem (33)  |  Forest (161)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Kind (564)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Live (650)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Organism (231)  |  Place (192)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Sea (326)  |  Term (357)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Totality (17)  |  Whale (45)

It all began with utter, indeed addictive, fascination with other forms of life. That led me through concern about what humanity is doing to the biology of the planet, to consideration of ecosystems and global cycles. That in turn has led to very practical concerns about how people should relate to nature. Yet the original fascination with jewel-like bits of natural science is always there.
— Thomas E. Lovejoy
Giving his own reason, in 'Seventy-Five Reasons to Become a Scientist', American Scientist (Sep-Oct 1988), 76, No. 5, 450.
Science quotes on:  |  Addictive (2)  |  Biology (232)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Ecosystem (33)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Form (976)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Life (1870)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Planet (402)

It is nothing short of scandalous that we probably only know one out of every ten species on earth, let alone where they are or, various aspects of their biology, and … unless we really know what there is, and where it is, we’re gonna make some mistakes without even knowing we’ve made them.
— Thomas E. Lovejoy
From Reith Lecture, 'Biodiversity', on BBC Radio 4 (19 Apr 2000). Transcript and audio on BBC website.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Biology (232)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Scandalous (3)  |  Short (200)  |  Species (435)  |  Various (205)

Natural species are the library from which genetic engineers can work. Genetic engineers don’t make new genes, they rearrange existing ones.
— Thomas E. Lovejoy
Speaking as World Wildlife Fund Executive Vice President, stating the need to conserve biodiversity, even plants and animals having no immediate use, as a unique repository of genes for possible future bioengineering applications. Quoted in Jamie Murphy and Andrea Dorfman, `The Quiet Apocalypse,' Time (13 Oct 1986), 128, No. 15, 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Bioengineering (5)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Gene (105)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetic Engineering (16)  |  Library (53)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rearrange (5)  |  Species (435)  |  Work (1402)

The natural world in which we live is nothing short of entrancing—wondrous really. Personally, I take great joy in sharing a world with the shimmering variety of life on earth. Nor can I believe any of us really want a planet which is a lonely wasteland.
— Thomas E. Lovejoy
In Reith Lecture, 'Biodiversity', BBC Radio 4 (19 Apr 2000). Audio on BBC website.
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entrancing (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Joy (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Planet (402)  |  Sharing (11)  |  Shimmering (2)  |  Short (200)  |  Variety (138)  |  Want (504)  |  Wasteland (2)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  World (1850)


See also:
  • 22 Aug - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Lovejoy's birth.
  • Environmental Profiles: A Global Guide to Projects and People, by Linda S. Katz, et al., eds. - book suggestion.

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.