As some of the lowest organisms, in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this special sensibility.

I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is a proof of earnestness.

I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men

Many kinds of monkeys have a strong taste for tea, coffee and spirituous liqueurs.

The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for 
the existence of God.

I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.

It may be doubted that there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have these lowly organized creatures.