Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
Interpretation
Understanding animal behavior can provide deep insights into human nature and philosophical concepts.
Darwin's quote suggests that a deep comprehension of the natural world, particularly the behavior of animals like baboons, holds greater significance for understanding the complexities of human thought and existence than some philosophical works. It emphasizes the importance of observing nature and our closest relatives to gain insight into fundamental questions about life and consciousness.
In practice
In a lecture about animal behavior, this quote could illustrate the importance of understanding our evolutionary history.
Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; it is the battle!
We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations.
Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself.
This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.
The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.
Surely we cannot take an open question like the supernatural and shut it with a bang, turning the key of the madhouse on all the mystics of history. You cannot take the region of the unknown and calmly say that, though you know nothing about it, you know all the gates are locked. We do not know enough about the unknown to know that it is unknowable.
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