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.
Interpretation
Species, like individuals, inevitably face extinction due to the changing conditions of the Earth.
This quote by Charles Lyell emphasizes the transitory nature of life on Earth, highlighting how species are subject to the same fate as individual organisms: mortality. It speaks to the inevitability of extinction and the constant evolution and change of the planet, making it clear that no species can escape this fate, regardless of its adaptability or resilience.
In practice
In a lecture on evolution, one might use this quote to illustrate the concept of natural selection and extinction.
When the aggregate amount of solid matter transported by rivers in a given number of centuries from a large continent, shall be reduced to arithmetical computation, the result will appear most astonishing to those...not in the habit of reflecting how many of the mightiest of operations in nature are effected insensibly, without noise or disorder.
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.
The question now at issue, whether the living species are connected with the extinct by a common bond of descent, will best be cleared up by devoting ourselves to the study of the actual state of the living world, and to those monuments of the past in which the relics of the animate creation of former ages are best preserved and least mutilated by the hand of time.
Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.
My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of transcendence.
The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full of unknowns, possibilities, and risks.
If every inhabitant of a liberal democracy believes in liberal democracy, then it doesn't matter what creed or colour they are.
The difference between magic and miracles is this. Magic is when you use your mind to tell the Universe what you want. _x000D_ _x000D_ Miracles is when you ask the Universe what it wants and how you can serve it'
But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills, And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me, And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. - Tithonus
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.