I doubt the fact, to begin with, but if it be so even, what is this but in grand words asking me to believe a thing because I like it.

Genius, as an explosive power, beats gunpowder hollow.

A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words.

To say that an idea is necessary is simply to affirm that we cannot conceive the contrary; and the fact that we cannot conceive the contrary of any belief may be a presumption, but is certainly no proof, of its truth.

Nothing great in science has ever been done by men, whatever their powers, in whom the divine afflatus of the truth-seeker was wanting.

For these two years I have been gravitating towards your doctrines, and since the publication of your primula paper with accelerated velocity. By about this time next year I expect to have shot past you, and to find you pitching into me for being more Darwinian than yourself. However, you have set me going, and must just take the consequences, for I warn you I will stop at no point so long as clear reasoning will take me further.

If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window.