101 quotes
Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth.
I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.
To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.
On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences (1854)
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
On the Hypothesis that Animals are Automata, and Its History (1874)
As to the logical consequences of this conviction of mine, I may be permitted to remark that logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed—from the inorganic to the organic—from blind force to conscious intellect and will.
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything... but I don't see my way to your conclusion.
The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment ... not authority.
Within the last fifty years, the extraordinary growth of every department of physical science has spread among us mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a character that a new ecdysis seems imminent.
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
Whatever part of the animal fabric—whatever series of muscles, whatever viscera might be selected for comparison—the result would be the same—the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla and the Man.
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance — that there are a great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are.
On Medical Education (1870)
M. Comte's philosophy, in practice, might be compendiously described as Catholicism minus Christianity.
Abram, Abraham became
By will divine
Let pickled Brian's name
Be changed to Brine!
For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.
A Liberal Education and Where to Find It (1868)
I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything — especially as I am now so much occupied with theology — but I don't see my way to your conclusion.
Even in the important matter of cranial capacity, Men differ more widely from one another than they do from the Apes; while the lowest Apes differ as much, in proportion, from the highest, as the latter does from Man.
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
The question of questions for mankind—the problem which underlies all others, and is more deeply interesting than any other—is the ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature and of his relations to the universe of things.
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
The only good that I can see in the demonstration of the truth of "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide. Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a séance.
My reflection when I first made myself master of the central idea of the Origin was, "How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that."
On the Reception of the Origin of Species (1887)
The mediaeval university looked backwards: it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge... The modern university looks forward: it is a factory of new knowledge.