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.

If I had not been so great an invalid, I should not have done so much as I have accomplished.

The man that created the theory of evolution by natural selection was thrown out by his Dad because he wanted him to be a doctor. GAWD, parents haven't changed much.

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

When primeval man first used flint stones for any purpose, he would have accidentally splintered them, and would then have used the sharp fragments. From this step it would be a small one to break the flints on purpose and not a very wide step to fashion them rudely.

On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non facit saltum.” This canon, if we look only to the present inhabitants of the world, is not strictly correct, but if we include all those of past times, it must by my theory be strictly true.

I cannot see ... evidence of design and beneficence ... There seems to me too much misery in the world.