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You are amazed that matter can form a man when matter is all mixed up at random and so many things go into making a person. But do you not realize that before matter forms someone it has also stopped along the way to make a stone, lead, coral, a flower, or a comet because there was too much or too little of it to make a human being? No wonder, then, that an infinite amount of incessantly moving and changing matter makes up the few animals, vegetables and minerals that we see. No wonder, either, that if you throw dice a hundred times, they will all show the same numbers at some point. This movement of matter, then, could not fail to produce something, and whatever it is will always be admired by the unthinking person who does not realize how close it came to not being made.

Cyrano de Bergerac#44

NatureMatterChanceEvolution

About this quote

What does it mean?
The quote explains that matter randomly forms humans and other things, and it is not surprising that complex beings eventually emerge.
In plain terms
Random movement of matter eventually creates living things by chance.
What can you take from it?
Complexity can arise from random processes over time.

Where it applies

  • discussing origins of life
  • analyzing natural processes
  • debating creation

Putting it to work

  • explaining natural selection
  • framing evolutionary arguments

Questions to consider

  • How does chance create order?
  • Why is human existence rare?

Another view

The analogy of throwing dice oversimplifies biological evolution.

More from Cyrano de Bergerac

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  2. Give thought to life and liberty.

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  3. I will prove that there are infinite worlds in an infinite world. Imagine the universe as a great animal, and the stars as worlds like other animals inside it.…

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