Stephen Jay Gould Fossils Quotations

Charles Darwin viewed the fossil record more as an embarrassment than as an aid to his theory ...

Results rarely specify their causes unambiguously. If we have no direct evidence of fossils or human chronicles, if we are forced to infer a process only from its modern results, then we are usually stymied or reduced to speculation about probabilities. For many roads lead to almost any Rome.

Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.