“If, in spite of the fact that all these attributes have been faithfully handed down unaltered for hundreds of generations, we are to believe that, in the course of time, they have all diverged from one common stock, how shall we resist the arguments of the transmutationist, who contends that all closely allied species of animals and plants have in like manner sprung from a common parentage, albeit that for the last three or four thousand years they may have been persistent in character?”
Source: The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863), Ch.20, p. 387-388
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Charles Lyell 103
British lawyer and geologist 1797–1875Related quotes

Dissertation for doctor of philosophy in christian education (May 25, 1991)

1920s, Whose Country Is This? (1921)

Lectures XIV and XV, "The Value of Saintliness"
1900s, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)

Source: The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863), Ch.20, p. 389-390

Source: The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863), Ch.21, p. 411

UN Address (1999)
Context: For how many thousands of years now have we humans been what we insist on calling "civilized?" And yet, in total contradiction, we also persist in the savage belief that we must occasionally, at least, settle our arguments by killing one another.
While we spend much of our time and a great deal of our treasure in preparing for war, we see no comparable effort to establish a lasting peace. Meanwhile, emphasizing the sloth in this regard, those advocates who work for world peace by urging a system of world government are called impractical dreamers. Those impractical dreamers are entitled to ask their critics what is so practical about war.

On naval timber and arboriculture (1831), Appendix F, part II

as quoted in Boss Ket (1961) by Rosamond McPherson Young p. 194