Great Quotes

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider him created from animals.

We are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps.

The great variability of all the external differences between the races of man, likewise indicates that they cannot be of much importance; for if important, they would long ago have been either fixed and preserved, or eliminated.

I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.

Why is The Origin of Species such a great book? First of all, because it convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: it provides a vast and well-chosen body of evidence showing that existing animals and plants cannot have been separately created in their present forms, but must have evolved from earlier forms by slow transformation.

Great as the differences are between the breeds of pigeons, I am fully convinced that the common opinion of naturalists is correct, namely, that all have descended from the rock-pigeon (Columba livia), including under this term several geographical races or sub-species, which differ from each other in the most trifling respects.

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work.

In monstrosities, the correlations between quite distinct parts are very curious; and many instances are given in Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire's great work on this subject.

Natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight successive favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short steps.

Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.

Sound has spoiled the most ancient of the world's arts, the art of pantomime, and has canceled out the great beauty that is silence.

[Talkies] are spoiling the oldest art in the world - the art of pantomime. They are ruining the great beauty of silence.

The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting.

Let us strive for the impossible. The great achievements throughout history have been the conquest of what seemed the impossible.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Great people are those who make others feel that they, too, can become great.

Farewell Australia! You ... are too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for respect. I leave your shores without sorrow or regret.

Embryology will reveal to us the structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each great class.