Charles Lyell Quotes

'Time's noblest offspring is the last.' This line of Bishop Berkeley's expresses the real cause of the belief in progress in the animal creation. ~ Charles Lyell

Thus, although we are mere sojourners on the surface of the planet, chained to a mere point in space, enduring but for a moment of time, the human mind is not only enabled to number worlds beyond the unassisted ken of mortal eye, but to trace the events of indefinite ages before the creation of our race, and is not even withheld from penetrating into the dark secrets of the ocean, or the solid globe. ~ Charles Lyell

We cannot see how the evidence afforded by the unquestioned progressive development of organised existence - crowned as it has been by the recent creation of the earth's greatest wonder, MAN, can be set aside, or its seemingly necessary result withheld for a moment. When Mr. Lyell finds, as a witty friend lately reported that there had been found, a silver-spoon in grauwacke, or a locomotive engine in mica-schist, then, but not sooner, shall we enrol ourselves disciples of the Cyclical Theory of Geological formations. ~ George Poulett Scrope

That ere long, now that curiosity has been so much excited on this subject, some human remains will be detected in the older alluvium of European valleys, I confidently expect. ~ Charles Lyell

Such discoveries have led me, and other geologists, to reconsider the evidence previously derived from caves brought forward in proof of the high antiquity of Man. ~ Charles Lyell

There is no foundation in geological facts, for the popular theory of the successive development of the animal and vegetable world, from the simplest to the most perfect forms. ~ Charles Lyell

In valley drift we meet commonly with the bones of quadrupeds which graze on plains bordering rivers. ~ Charles Lyell

I may conclude this chapter by quoting a saying of Professor Agassiz, that whenever a new and startling fact is brought to light in science, people first say, 'it is not true,' then that 'it is contrary to religion,' and lastly, 'that everybody knew it before. ~ Charles Lyell

I long ago suggested the hypothesis, that in the basin of the Thames there are indications of a meeting in the Pleistocene period of a northern and southern fauna. ~ Charles Lyell

Notwithstanding, therefore, that we have not witnessed of a large continent, yet, as we may predict the future occurrence of such catastrophes, we are authorized to regard them as part of the present order of Nature. ~ Charles Lyell

No tools have yet been met with in any of the gravels occurring at the higher levels of the valley of the Seine; but no importance can be attached to this negative fact, as so little search has yet been made for them. ~ Charles Lyell

It was a profound saying of Wilhelm Humboldt, that 'Man is man only by means of speech, but in order to invent speech he must be already man.' ~ Charles Lyell

The present is the key to the past ~ Charles Lyell

Man, whose organization is regarded as the highest, departs from the vertebrate archetype; and it is because the study of anatomy is usually commenced from, and often confined to, his structure, that a knowledge of the archetype has been so long hidden from anatomists. ~ Charles Lyell

Never was there a dogma more calculated to foster indolence, and to blunt the keen edge of curiosity, than the assumption of the discordance between the former and the existing causes of change. ~ Charles Lyell

It has long been a fact familiar to geologists, that, both on the east and west coasts of the central part of Scotland, there are lines of raised beaches, containing marine shells of the same species as those now inhabiting the neighbouring sea. ~ Charles Lyell

When on my return to England I showed the cast of the cranium to Professor Huxley, he remarked at once that it was the most ape-like skull he had ever beheld. ~ Charles Lyell

Geology is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature; it enquires into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet. ~ Charles Lyell

In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is a depth of no more than from 5 to 15 feet of water, ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom sometimes worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting slightly above it. ~ Charles Lyell

In several sections, both natural in the banks of the Mississippi and its numerous arms, and where artificial canals had been cut, I observed erect stumps of trees, with their roots attached, buried in strata at different heights, one over the other. ~ Charles Lyell

[My Book] will endeavour to establish the principle[s] of reasoning in ... [geology]; and all my geology will come in as illustration of my views of those principles, and as evidence strengthening the system necessarily arising out of the admission of such principles, which ... are neither more nor less than that no causes whatever have from the earliest time to which we can look back, to the present, ever acted, but those now acting; and that they never acted with different degrees of energy from that which they now exert. ~ Charles Lyell

Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth's surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of escaping from this conclusion. ~ Charles Lyell

The frontispiece of Mr. Lyell's book is enough to throw a Wernerian into fits. ~ George Poulett Scrope

In reply, I can only plead that a discovery which seems to contradict the general tenor of previous investigations is naturally received with much hesitation. ~ Charles Lyell

Hitherto, no rival hypothesis has been proposed as a substitute for the doctrine of transmutation; for 'independent creation,' as it is often termed, or the direct intervention of the Supreme Cause, must simply be considered as an avowal that we deem the question to lie beyond the domain of science. ~ Charles Lyell

It is probable that a greater number of monuments of the skill and industry of man will, in the course of the ages, be collected together in the bed of the ocean than will exist at any other time on the surface of the continents. ~ Charles Lyell

Geology is intimately related to almost all the physical sciences, as history is to the moral. An ~ Charles Lyell

They were beautiful nothings ~ Charles Bukowski

No specific technology. My guess is that it was the instinct always to go to maximum scale. Great Britain kept much more of a small shop mindset well into the twentieth century, for instance. ~ Charles R. Morris

Christians can never sin cheaply; they pay a heavy price for iniquity. Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul; therefore be not the serf and bondman of sin. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Like the bad guy said, never give an artist a Browning; they're some of the most dangerous folks you can meet ... Artists almost always want an audience, the spectacle of destruction. That name - Dadaist. It's a dead giveaway. Expect a senseless act of mass violence, the theater of cruelty. About all I can do is try and keep him talking while you get in position to kill him. And don't give him anything he might mistake for an audience."
Charles Stross, "Iron Sunrise. ~ Charles Stross

They were both at such an age that they stood on a cusp. They could think in one part of their minds that their whole lives stretched out before them without boundary or limit. At the same time another part guessed that youth was about over for them and what lay ahead was another country entirely, wherein the possibilities narrowed down moment by moment. ~ Charles Frazier

Without our God we should fear to move; but when He bids us to, it would be dangerous to tarry. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

What is it to be a follower of Jesus? What does it mean to imitate Him? What does it mean to walk in His steps? ~ Charles M. Sheldon

If thou rememberest that thou art going to heaven, thou wilt not sleep on the road. If thou thinkest that hell is behind thee, and the devil pursuing thee, thou wilt not loiter. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

It seems beyond the comprehension of people that someone can be born to draw comic strips, but I think I was. My ambition from earliest memory was to produce a daily comic strip. ~ Charles M. Schulz

IF ONE WISHES to live to a ripe old age, there are certain activities one should avoid. Chief among these is eating anything larger than one's own head - but not so very far down the list is any activity that involves clambering around the outside of a spaceship. ~ Charles Stross

If a thing be right, though you lose by it, it must be done; if it be wrong, though you would gain by it, you must scorn the sin for your Master's sake. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Knowing as we do - our secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and black-heartedness, we are dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and sovereignty of grace! Jesus must have found the cause of His love - in His own heart. He could not have found it in us - for it is not there! Even since our conversion we have been black with sin - though sovereign grace has made us lovely in His sight. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

It is well-known that those who have charge of young infants, that it is difficult to feel sure when certain movements about their mouths are really expressive; that is when they really smile. Hence I carefully watched my own infants. One of them at the age of forty-five days, and being in a happy frame of mind, smiled ... I observed the same thing on the following day: but on the third day the child was not quite well and there was no trace of a smile, and this renders it probable that the previous smiles were real. ~ Charles Darwin

The fact is that God has never left himself without a witness. The Son of God has always been in the world. He is the light that lights every man who is born. From the beginning he has been giving men right ideas and right feelings and helping them to reach right conclusions and decisions. ~ Charles Edward Jefferson

Am I 53 or 54? I think I'm 54. I was born in 1941. So this year I'll be 55. ~ Charles Keating

Following the road down to Maienfeld, she said to herself, "If only I can meet the Spring, how happy I shall be."
Today, she thought of the Spring as a gay messenger boy and smilingly she imagined him "in a beautiful apple green suit with daisies studding his shoes" as it says in the song. ~ Charles Tritten

Grandeur ... consists in form, and not in size: and to the eye of the philosopher, the curve drawn on a paper two inches long, is just as magnificent, just as symbolic of divine mysteries and melodies, as when embodied in the span of some cathedral roof. ~ Charles Kingsley

It is not easy to do something good, but it is extremely difficult to do something bad. ~ Charles Eames

Always be yourself, is generally good advice. Unless, you're mean and narcissistic; then please don't take that advice. ~ Charles F. Glassman

No one can declare your feelings and emotions illegal or judge them unworthy. You feel what you feel. ~ Charles F. Glassman

It would take a God with equal measures of truth, love, and justice to [give us a metanarrative]. Since I had abandoned that faith in God and considered myself secular, that wasn't a real option for me. ~ Charles Colson

Be friends with everybody. When you have friends, you will know there is somebody who will stand by you. ~ Charles M. Schwab

What it means is that some of Charles' press secretaries have been better than others as some of the Queen's press secretaries have been better than others. ~ Anthony Holden

If you tell me no, I will be silent. If you prefer, I shall never ask again. But you should know that I would plead on my knees. If I thought you wanted me there.'

"To win my help?"

"Be damned to your help. I want your mouth, and your hands, and your hair, and your eyes. I want to stop feeling as though half of my world has gone missing. That puts no obligation on you, none at all, but it is the truth. Do as you wish with it. ~ K.J. Charles

Get a friend to tell you your faults, or better still, welcome an enemy who will watch you keenly and sting you savagely. What a blessing such an irritating critic will be to a wise man, what an intolerable nuisance to a fool! ~ Charles Spurgeon

Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop," returned madame; "but don't tell me. ~ Charles Dickens

You can repeat things because it's on a set and there are actors. But if it's a great moment and you don't capture it, it's rare to get that moment again. ~ Larry Charles

Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they're not. They're habits. ~ Charles Duhigg

I quickly learned that if I kept at it and plowed right through the rejections I would eventually get somebody to buy my wares. ~ Charles R. Schwab

In His own heart, there were frequently great struggles. And those struggles drove Him to prayer. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The venerable C.S. Lewis once said, in a way that he alone seemed to be able to say: "You cannot go on being a good egg forever, you must either hatch or rot! ~ Charles Thomas

I used to work for the Clippers - I sold tickets - so I was in the Staples Center all the time. I'm a big Clippers fan. ~ Charles Michael Davis

It was like a church in there as only the truly lost sit in bars on Tuesday mornings at 8:00 a.m. ~ Charles Bukowski

I want to say here and now, that I demand unshakable integrity of every State employee. ~ Charles Edison

This is the way history happens: it is measured out in days rather than epochs. ~ Charles Nicholl

Chess enjoys a not wholly undeserved reputation for psychic derangement. It is an endeavor associated, when not with frank madness, with oddness and isolation. I remember a psychiatrist friend visiting me at a chess club in downtown Boston once. He walked in, sat down, looked around and said, 'Jeez, I could run a group here. ~ Charles Krauthammer

When we arrive at dilemmas in life and we are unable to decipher the right direction to go, if we hope to maintain our confidence in the process, we must (repeat must) allow the Lord to be our Guide, our Strength, our Wisdom - our all! ~ Charles R. Swindoll

My meaning is, that no man can expect his children to respect what he degrades. ~ Charles Dickens