Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
You will be astonished to find how the whole mental disposition of your children changes with advancing years. A young child and the same when nearly grown, sometimes differ almost as much as do a caterpillar and butterfly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
As children grow, their mindset and behavior evolve significantly, much like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly.
This quote by Charles Darwin highlights the dramatic changes in mental disposition that children undergo as they mature. Just as a caterpillar undergoes a profound transformation into a butterfly, children move from a simple, often unrefined way of thinking in early childhood to a more complex and nuanced understanding as they grow older. This evolutionary perspective emphasizes the importance of nurturing their development during these critical years.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a parenting workshop to illustrate the importance of adapting to children's changing needs.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes →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
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The reader must come armed , in a serious state of intellectual readiness. This is not easy because he comes to the text alone. In reading, one's responses are isolated, one'sintellect thrown back on its own resourses. To be confronted by the cold abstractions of printed sentences is to look upon language bare, without the assistance of either beauty or community. Thus, reading is by its nature a serious business. It is also, of course, an essentially rational activity.