In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God ... I think that generally (& more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind.

It's not the strongest, but the most adaptable that survive.

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.

Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt.

I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture.

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it.

What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly.