Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the uncertainty of devoting oneself to ideas or beliefs that may not be real.
Charles Darwin expresses a moment of self-doubt regarding the path he has chosen and the ideas he has devoted himself to. This introspection suggests that even great minds grapple with the fear of investing in theories or dreams that may ultimately prove to be illusory or unfounded, prompting a deeper contemplation of the nature of belief and understanding.
Themes
Self-DoubtUncertaintyBeliefFantasyIntrospection
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on pursuing passions, one might quote Darwin to emphasize the importance of questioning our commitments.
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
The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.
Kofi AnnanRead
What is a Christian? The richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father.
J. I. PackerRead
Society is joint action and cooperation in which each participant sees the other partner's success as a means for the attainment of his own.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God.
Francois FenelonRead
There have been household gods and household saints and household fairies. I am not sure that there have yet been any factory gods or factory saints or factory fairies. I may be wrong, as I am no commericial expert, but I have not heard of them as yet.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
It is God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential being. Man's body is not his prison, his shell his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather he "is" body and soul. Man in the beginning is really his body. He is one. He is his body, as Christ is completely his body, as the Church is the body of Christ
Dietrich BonhoefferRead