The result, therefore, of this physical enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.

The globe of this earth … [is] … not just a machine but also a organised body as it has a regenerative power.

As there is not in human observation proper means for measuring the waste of land upon the globe, it is hence inferred, that we cannot estimate the duration of what we see at present, nor calculate the period at which it had begun; so that, with respect to human observation, this world has neither a beginning nor an end.

In matters of science, curiosity gratified begets not indolence, but new desires.

The result, therefore, of this physical enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.

Man is made for science; he reasons from effects to causes, and from causes to effects; but he does not always reason without error. In reasoning, therefore, from appearances which are particular, care must be taken how we generalize; we should be cautious not to attribute to nature, laws which may perhaps be only of our own invention.

There is no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.