Mr. Darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as I am aware, inconsistent with any known biological fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts of Development, of Comparative Anatomy, of Geographical Distribution, and of Palaeontology, become connected together, and exhibit a meaning such as they never possessed before; and I, for one, am fully convinced that if not precisely true, that hypothesis is as near an approximation to the truth as, for example, the Copernican hypothesis was to the true theory of the planetary motions.

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.

All knowledge is good. It is impossible to say any fragment of knowledge, however insignificant or remote from one's ordinary pursuits, may not some day be turned to account.

And when you cannot prove that people are wrong, but only that they are absurd, the best course is to let them alone.

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins.

For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.