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The world has arisen in some way or another. How it originated is the great question, and Darwin's theory, like all other attempts to explain the origin of life, is thus far merely conjectural. I believe he has not even made the best conjecture possible in the present state of our knowledge.

— Louis Agassiz Evolution and Permanence of Type (1874)

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Science

More quotes by Louis Agassiz

The facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form, after all, the only impartial jury to which we can appeal.

Geological Sketches (1870)

The time has come when scientific truth must cease to be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common life of the world.

Methods of Study in Natural History (1863)

Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next they say it has been discovered before. Lastly they say they always believed it.

A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991)

The crust of our earth is a great cemetery, where the rocks are tombstones on which the buried dead have written their own epitaphs.

Geological Sketches (1870)

A laboratory of natural history is a sanctuary where nothing profane should be tolerated. I feel less agony at improprieties in churches than in a scientific laboratory.

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Henri Poincaré Science and Hypothesis (1901)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Louis Agassiz (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.