The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 40th anniversary edition, 2016; first published 1976, second edition 1989)

Richard Dawkins · c. 1976–1989

Richard Dawkins did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
We are survival machines, blindly programmed to preserve our genes

Their wordsWe are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
Our reading
Ruthless selfishness is the quality to expect in a successful gene

Their wordsa predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness.
Our reading
Explaining evolution is not advocating a morality based on it

Their wordsI am not advocating a morality based on evolution.
Our reading
We are gene machines and meme machines, with the power to turn against our creators

Their wordsWe are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators.
Our reading
Humans alone can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators

Their wordsWe, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.
Our reading
Universal love and the good of the species make no evolutionary sense

Their wordsuniversal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary sense.
Our reading
Preserving the genes is the ultimate rationale for our existence

Their wordsThey are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence.
Our reading
Culture needs a name for its own replicator, a unit of imitation

Their wordsWe need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.
Our reading
Saying we are born selfish is misleading

Their wordsThere is nothing wrong with teaching generosity and altruism, but ‘born selfish’ is misleading

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