The instruction at Edinburgh was altogether by lectures, and these were intolerably dull, with the exception of those on chemistry.

I never gave up Christianity until I was forty years of age.

I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brain... & therefore that when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes.

A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." Charles Darwin

As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.

...he who remains passive when over-whelmed with grief loses his best chance of recovering his elasticity of mind.

The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than the woman. Whether deep thought, reason, or imagination or merely the use of the senses and hands.....We may also infer.....The average mental power in man must be above that of woman.