There is a grandeur in this view of life, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful are being evolved

An agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind.

Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but at last was complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct.

I am dying by inches, from not having any body to talk to about insects.

...I believe there exists, & I feel within me, an instinct for the truth, or knowledge or discovery, of something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue, & that our having such an instinct is reason enough for scientific researches without any practical results ever ensuing from them.

If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte at three years old with wonderfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice at all, he might truly have been said to have done so instinctively.

The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability.