Richard Dawkins Biography Quotes 25 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Clinton Richard Dawkins was born on 26 March 1941 in Nairobi, in what was then British Kenya, to British parents. His father served in the Colonial Service during the Second World War, and the family returned to England when Richard was a child. He grew up in Oxfordshire and attended Oundle School, where his interest in natural history and the logic of scientific explanation began to take shape. At the University of Oxford he read zoology at Balliol College, studying under the eminent ethologist and Nobel laureate Nikolaas (Niko) Tinbergen. Dawkins completed his DPhil in 1966 with Tinbergen as his supervisor, an intellectual partnership that grounded his lifelong focus on animal behavior, evolutionary theory, and rigorous empirical reasoning.

Early Academic Career
After his doctorate, Dawkins remained at Oxford as a researcher, then took an assistant professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1960s before returning to Oxford. He became a fellow of New College, Oxford, and taught there for decades. In these formative years he was strongly influenced by colleagues and predecessors who advanced the gene-centered view of evolution, notably W. D. Hamilton and John Maynard Smith. Their theoretical insights provided a framework that Dawkins would bring to wide public attention, clarifying how natural selection can be profitably understood as acting on genes as replicators.

Research and Concepts
Dawkins's scientific work is associated with the idea of the gene as the fundamental unit of selection and the development of the "extended phenotype", his term for the ways in which genes can exert effects beyond the bodies they inhabit, shaping behavior, structures in the environment, and evolutionary outcomes at a distance. He also popularized the concept of the "meme" as a cultural replicator, introduced in his first book to draw an analogy between biological and cultural evolution. Beyond theory, he became known for clear computational demonstrations of evolutionary processes, such as his "weasel" program illustrating cumulative selection and the "biomorphs" that show how simple rules can generate complex forms.

Books and Science Communication
The Selfish Gene (1976) brought Dawkins international prominence, presenting the gene-centered view in lucid prose and reshaping public understanding of evolution. He followed with The Extended Phenotype (1982), which many scientists regard as his most original scholarly contribution. The Blind Watchmaker (1986) addressed arguments for design, explaining how natural selection can build complex adaptations without foresight. Subsequent works, including River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), and The Ancestor's Tale (2004), deepened his reputation as a leading interpreter of evolutionary biology. With The God Delusion (2006), he entered a broader cultural conversation about religion and secularism. Later books such as The Greatest Show on Earth (2009), The Magic of Reality (2011, with illustrations by Dave McKean), the memoirs An Appetite for Wonder (2013) and Brief Candle in the Dark (2015), and other works continued his dual role as scientist and public educator.

Public Roles and Institutions
In 1995 Dawkins became the inaugural Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, a post endowed by technologist and philanthropist Charles Simonyi to promote high-quality science communication. He held the chair until 2008, during which he delivered lectures, made television and radio programs, and wrote widely for general audiences. He presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1991 under the title Growing Up in the Universe, introducing evolutionary thinking to younger viewers with characteristic clarity. In 2006 he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to support secular education and evidence-based policy; it later merged with the Center for Inquiry, broadening its reach.

Debate, Dialogue, and Controversy
Dawkins's public career has included high-profile debates and exchanges about evolution, religion, and the nature of evidence. He has argued vigorously against creationism and intelligent design, producing documentaries such as The Root of All Evil? (2006) and The Enemies of Reason (2007). He debated the philosopher John Lennox and engaged in extended dialogues with philosophers and scientists including Daniel Dennett, with whom he shares a long friendship. Along with Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, he became identified with the "New Atheism", a movement advocating outspoken criticism of dogma and defense of secular values. Among scientific peers, he sometimes sparred with Stephen Jay Gould over adaptationism and evolutionary tempo and mode, disputes that helped clarify both common ground and real differences within evolutionary theory.

Personal Life
Dawkins's personal life has intersected with his professional world in illuminating ways. His first marriage, to the zoologist Marian Stamp Dawkins, connected two Oxford scholars with shared interests in animal behavior, though they pursued distinct research paths. He later married Eve Barham, with whom he has a daughter, Juliet. In 1992 he married the actor Lalla Ward, introduced to him by their mutual friend, the writer Douglas Adams, whose imaginative work and enthusiasm for science paralleled Dawkins's own delight in explanation. These relationships situate Dawkins within a community of scientists, writers, and artists who helped amplify his message to broader audiences. In 2016 he experienced a minor stroke and subsequently reduced his travel schedule while continuing to write and record conversations.

Style, Influence, and Legacy
Dawkins is frequently praised for a prose style that applies analytic precision to vivid metaphors, making abstract ideas concrete without diluting their rigor. He has influenced generations of readers and students by reframing evolution in terms of information, replication, and selection, and by insisting that careful reasoning and evidence are the proper tools for understanding nature. His signature ideas, from the extended phenotype to memes, have had wide resonance both within science and in the humanities and social sciences, stimulating debate that extends beyond biology.

His visibility has also brought obligations as a public intellectual: he has defended science education in schools, supported legal and civic efforts that uphold the teaching of evolution, and argued for secular, humanistic ethics grounded in empathy and reason. While critics dispute aspects of his philosophy of religion or emphasize alternative interpretations within evolutionary biology, few doubt his impact on the communication of science. By bridging laboratory and lecture hall, scholarly monograph and television documentary, Dawkins has stood alongside mentors and peers such as Niko Tinbergen, W. D. Hamilton, and John Maynard Smith in shaping modern evolutionary thought, while working with cultural figures like Douglas Adams and conversing with fellow thinkers including Daniel Dennett. Through his books, lectures, and the institutions he helped build, he has left a durable mark on how the public encounters the story of life.

Our collection contains 25 quotes who is written by Richard, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Meaning of Life - Deep - Faith - Science.