"There is no better high than discovery"
About this Quote
Wilson’s line reads like a brag, but it’s really a lure: discovery isn’t just pleasant, it’s addictive. “High” is doing a lot of work here. A Harvard biologist and champion of biodiversity isn’t borrowing the language of intoxication to sound cool; he’s collapsing the distance between lab work and desire. Science, in this framing, isn’t a dutiful march of method but a pulse-chasing enterprise where curiosity has the force of appetite.
The intent is partly recruitment. Wilson spent a career trying to make the living world feel legible and urgent to people who might never hold a specimen tray. Calling discovery the “better high” is a direct pitch to anyone tempted by easier thrills: the most durable rush is earned, not bought. It flatters the listener into imagining they’re the kind of person who can tolerate uncertainty long enough to be rewarded by it.
Subtext: discovery is morally cleaner than other highs, but it’s still a high, with all the hazards that implies. Scientists can become hooked on novelty, prestige, priority. Wilson knew the politics of attention in research and conservation; elevating discovery also defends the time-consuming, often lonely labor that precedes it.
Context matters, too. Coming from a naturalist who watched habitats vanish in real time, “discovery” isn’t just personal joy. It’s a race against erasure. The rush is sharpened by the possibility that what you’re finding may soon be gone, and that naming and understanding a thing is the first step toward saving it.
The intent is partly recruitment. Wilson spent a career trying to make the living world feel legible and urgent to people who might never hold a specimen tray. Calling discovery the “better high” is a direct pitch to anyone tempted by easier thrills: the most durable rush is earned, not bought. It flatters the listener into imagining they’re the kind of person who can tolerate uncertainty long enough to be rewarded by it.
Subtext: discovery is morally cleaner than other highs, but it’s still a high, with all the hazards that implies. Scientists can become hooked on novelty, prestige, priority. Wilson knew the politics of attention in research and conservation; elevating discovery also defends the time-consuming, often lonely labor that precedes it.
Context matters, too. Coming from a naturalist who watched habitats vanish in real time, “discovery” isn’t just personal joy. It’s a race against erasure. The rush is sharpened by the possibility that what you’re finding may soon be gone, and that naming and understanding a thing is the first step toward saving it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
|---|
More Quotes by O. Wilson
Add to List
