There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties...The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.

I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley

Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appearance of new beings on this earth.

A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.

...all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it.

The more one thinks, the more one feels the hopeless immensity of man's ignorance.

And hail their queen, fair regent of the night.