The noble science of Geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection of the record. The crust of the earth with its embedded remains must not be looked at as a well-filled museum, but as a poor collection made at hazard and at rare intervals.

I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage ... will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it appears to me the doing what little we can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue.

Nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in a distant country.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animal, the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important....It is the most noble of all the attributes of man.

I always make special notes about evidence that contridicts me: supportive evidence I can remember without trying.

It is like confessing to a murder.