And we owe science to the combined energies of individual men of genius, rather than to any tendency to progress inherent in civilization.

Such evidence is not the only kind which produces belief; though positivism maintains that it is the only kind which ought to produce so high a degree of confidence as all minds have or can be made to have through their agreements.

The accidental causes of science are only accidents relatively to the intelligence of a man.

What a fearful object a long-neglected duty gets to be

If they are, then the only ultimate truths are the particulars of concrete experience, and no postulate or general assumption is inherent in science until its proceedings become systematic, or the truths already reached give direction to further research.

Let one persuade many, and he becomes confirmed and convinced, and cares for no better evidence.

Natural Selection never made it come to pass, as a habit of nature, that an unsupported stone should move downwards rather than upwards. It applies to no part of inorganic nature, and is very limited even in the phenomena of organic life.