Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the process of intellectual growth and the need for new frameworks to accommodate expanding knowledge.
Charles Darwin suggests that as humans acquire knowledge, there comes a point where the existing theoretical frameworks can no longer contain this knowledge, leading to a transformation or evolution in thought. Just as a grub sheds its skin to allow for its growth, the human mind must also shed outdated theories to embrace new ideas and understanding, reflecting the dynamic nature of intellectual development.
Themes
KnowledgeGrowthTransformationTheoryIntellect
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on evolution, one could reference this quote to illustrate the importance of adapting ideas.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes βThe 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
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
VoltaireRead
Here, everything is tragic through and through, and the will, that fain would shape a world according to its wish, at last can reach no greater satisfaction than the breaking of itself in dignified annulment.
Richard WagnerRead
The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher's or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself - Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
The next time someone uses denial of citizenship as a weapon or brandishes the special status conferred upon him by the accident of birth, ask him this: What have you done lately to earn it?
Eric LiuRead
But there are not a few who would be indignant at having their belief in God questioned, who yet seem greatly to fear imagining Him better than He is.
George MacdonaldRead
In a healthy, normal society, people can disagree with one another, even have diametrically opposing views, and this does not at all mean that they must hate one another. The Polish authorities, however, have made the division of Poles their primary task.
Olga TokarczukRead