Quotes from Alfred Russel Wallace

There is a tendency in nature to the continued progression of certain classes of varieties further and further from the original type.

In all works on Natural History, we constantly find details of the marvellous adaptation of animals to their food, their habits, and the localities in which they are found.

As well might it be said that, because we are ignorant of the laws by which metals are produced and trees developed, we cannot know anything of the origin of steamships and railways.

What we need are not prohibitory marriage laws, but a reformed society, an educated public opinion which will teach individual duty in these matters.

I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.

If this is not done, future ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations.

Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a preexisting closely allied species.

In my solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death.

On the Law Which has Regulated the Introduction of Species 1855

I]t is indisputably the mediocre, if not the low, both as regards morality and intelligence, who succeed in life and multiply the fastest.

Truth is born into this world only with pangs and tribulations, and every fresh truth is received unwillingly.

I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head

Trigonometrical Survey of England.

Civilisation has ever accompanied emigration and conquest - the conflict of opinion, of religion, or of race

To the mass of mankind religion of some kind is a necessity

What we need are not prohibitory marriage laws, but a reformed society, an educated public opinion which will teach individual duty in these matters.

In my solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death.

To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception.

On the spiritual theory, man consists essentially of a spiritual nature or mind intimately associated with a spiritual body or soul, both of which are developed in and by means of a material organism

But naturalists are now beginning to look beyond this, and to see that there must be some other principle regulating the infinitely varied forms of animal life.

What birds can have their bills more peculiarly formed than the ibis, the spoonbill, and the heron?

I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.

Modification of form is admitted to be a matter of time

Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species.