“Talent is an accident of genes, and a responsibility.”

“Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.”

“Adrian's fragment also refers to the question of responsibility: whether there's a chain of it, or whether we draw the concept more narrowly. I'm all for drawing it narrowly. Sorry, no, you can't blame your dead parents, or having brothers and sisters, or not having them, or your genes, or society, or whatever - not in normal circumstances. Start with the notion that yours is the sole responsibility unless there's powerful evidence to the contrary.”

“In the world of the extended phenotype, ask not how an animal's behaviour benefits its genes; ask instead whose genes it is benefiting.”

“Relatives share a substantial proportion of their genes. Each selfish gene therefore has its loyalties divided between different bodies.”

“Contrary to popular belief, the gene-centered theory of evolution does not imply that the point of all human striving is to spread our genes.”