Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Darwin reflects on the nature of biology and the theory of evolution, questioning whether it is purely scientific or has elements of faith.
In this quote, Charles Darwin contemplates the status of biology as a science deeply rooted in the theory of evolution. He highlights the interesting paradox that while evolution is a well-supported scientific theory, it also requires a degree of belief in its principles, which prompts a debate about the epistemological foundations of biological science.
Themes
EvolutionBiologyScienceFaithTheory
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of science in understanding our origins, this quote can illustrate the debate surrounding evolutionary theory.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes →The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles DarwinRead
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.
Charles DarwinRead
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.
Charles DarwinRead
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
Charles DarwinRead
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
Charles DarwinRead
Similar quotes
The goal is to learn more about telomere length and other markers of ageing, how best to measure these markers, how they are related to health and lifestyle, and how people respond to learning their own telomere length results.
Elizabeth BlackburnRead
The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986. I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.
Stephen HawkingRead
The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness.
Pierre-Simon LaplaceRead
When the wrong question is being asked, it usually turns out to be because the right question is too difficult. Scientists ask questions they can answer. That is, it is often the case that the operations of a science are not a consequence of the problematic of that science, but that the problematic is induced by the available means.
Richard LewontinRead
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
David AttenboroughRead
HOMOEOPATHY, n. A school of medicine midway between Allopathy and Christian Science. To the last both the others are distinctly inferior, for Christian Science will cure imaginary diseases, and they can not.
Ambrose BierceRead