Charles Lyell Quotes

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Age Animals Creation Earth Evolution Monument Past

Never call an accountant a credit to his profession; a good accountant is a debit to his profession.

Charles Lyell

Money, Credit, Debit

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The present is the key to the past

Charles Lyell

Past, Keys

Charles Lyell (2005). “The Geological Evidence of Man”, p.8, Cosimo, Inc.

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There is no foundation in geological facts, for the popular theory of the successive development of the animal and vegetable world, from the simplest to the most perfect forms.

Charles Lyell

Science, Animal, Vegetables

Sir Charles Lyell, Gérard Paul Deshayes (1830). “Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation”, p.153

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Geology is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature; it enquires into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet.

Charles Lyell

Taken, Science, Kingdoms

Sir Charles Lyell, Gérard Paul Deshayes (1830). “Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation”, p.1

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Geology differs as widely from cosmogony, as speculations concerning the creation of man differ from history.

Charles Lyell

Science, Men, Creation Of Man

Sir Charles Lyell, Gérard Paul Deshayes (1830). “Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation”, p.4

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Never was there a dogma more calculated to foster indolence, and to blunt the keen edge of curiosity, than the assumption of the discordance between the former and the existing causes of change.

Charles Lyell

Change, Science, Curiosity

Sir Charles Lyell (1837). “Principles of Geology: Being an Inquiry how Far the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface are Referable to Causes Now in Operation”, p.305

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Millions of our race are now supported by lands situated where deep seas once prevailed in earlier ages. In many districts not yet occupied by man, land animals and forests now abound where the anchor once sank into the oozy bottom.

Charles Lyell

Science, Animal, Men

Sir Charles Lyell, Gérard Paul Deshayes (1830). “Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation”, p.255

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It must have appeared almost as improbable to the earlier geologists, that the laws of earthquakes should one day throw light on the origin of mountains, as it must to the first astronomers, that the fall of an apple should assist in explaining the motions of the moon.

Charles Lyell

Fall, Science, Moon

Charles Lyell (1833). “Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by Reference to Causes Now in Operation”, p.5

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It is probable that a greater number of monuments of the skill and industry of man will, in the course of the ages, be collected together in the bed of the ocean than will exist at any other time on the surface of the continents.

Charles Lyell

Ocean, Men, Numbers

Sir Charles Lyell (1837). “Principles of Geology: Being an Inquiry how Far the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface are Referable to Causes Now in Operation”, p.244

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Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth's surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of escaping from this conclusion.

Charles Lyell

Science, Escaping, Extinction

Sir Charles Lyell (1853). “Principles of geology ; or, The modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology”, p.696

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It was a profound saying of Wilhelm Humboldt, that 'Man is man only by means of speech, but in order to invent speech he must be already man.'

Charles Lyell

Mean, Men, Order

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So far from having a materialistic tendency, the supposed introduction into the earth at successive geological periods of life,-sensation,-instinct,-the intelligence of the higher mammalia bordering on reason,-and lastly the improvable reason of Man himself, presents us with a picture of the ever-increasing dominion of mind over matter.

Charles Lyell

Science, Men, Mind

Charles Lyell (1863). “The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation by Charles Lyell”, p.506

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In attempting to explain geological phenomena, the bias has always been on the wrong side; there has always been a disposition to reason á priori on the extraordinary violence and suddenness of changes, both in the inorganic crust of the earth, and in organic types, instead of attempting strenuously to frame theories in accordance with the ordinary operations of nature.

Charles Lyell

Ordinary, Earth, Violence

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Notwithstanding, therefore, that we have not witnessed of a large continent, yet, as we may predict the future occurrence of such catastrophes, we are authorized to regard them as part of the present order of Nature.

Charles Lyell

Nature, Science, Order

Charles Lyell (1837). “Principles of Geology0: Being an Inquiry how Far the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface are Referable to Causes Now in Operation : In 4 Volumes”, p.134

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'Time's noblest offspring is the last.' This line of Bishop Berkeley's expresses the real cause of the belief in progress in the animal creation.

Charles Lyell

Real, Science, Animal

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Man, whose organization is regarded as the highest, departs from the vertebrate archetype; and it is because the study of anatomy is usually commenced from, and often confined to, his structure, that a knowledge of the archetype has been so long hidden from anatomists.

Charles Lyell

Knowledge, Science, Men

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[My Book] will endeavour to establish the principle[s] of reasoning in ... [geology]; and all my geology will come in as illustration of my views of those principles, and as evidence strengthening the system necessarily arising out of the admission of such principles, which... are neither more nor less than that no causes whatever have from the earliest time to which we can look back, to the present, ever acted, but those now acting; and that they never acted with different degrees of energy from that which they now exert.

Charles Lyell

Book, Science, Views

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In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is a depth of no more than from 5 to 15 feet of water, ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom sometimes worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting slightly above it.

Charles Lyell

Feet, Lakes, Water

Charles Lyell (2005). “The Geological Evidence of Man”, p.14, Cosimo, Inc.

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The ordinary naturalist is not sufficiently aware that when dogmatizing on what species are, he is grappling with the whole question of the organic world & its connection with the time past & with Man; that it involves the question of Man & his relation to the brutes, of instinct, intelligence & reason, of Creation, transmutation & progressive improvement or development. Each set of geological questions & of ethnological & zool. & botan. are parts of the great problem which is always assuming a new aspect.

Charles Lyell

Science, Past, Men

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Each species may have had its origin in a single pair, or individual, where an individual was sufficient, and species may have been created in succession at such times and in such places as to enable them to multiply and endure for an appointed period, and occupy an appointed space on the globe.

Charles Lyell

Science, Space, May

Sir Charles Lyell (1853). “Principles of geology ; or, The modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology”, p.666

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When on my return to England I showed the cast of the cranium to Professor Huxley, he remarked at once that it was the most ape-like skull he had ever beheld.

Charles Lyell

Skulls, Apes, Return

Charles Lyell (2005). “The Geological Evidence of Man”, p.61, Cosimo, Inc.

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Hitherto, no rival hypothesis has been proposed as a substitute for the doctrine of transmutation; for 'independent creation,' as it is often termed, or the direct intervention of the Supreme Cause, must simply be considered as an avowal that we deem the question to lie beyond the domain of science.

Charles Lyell

Lying, Independent, Science

Charles Lyell (1863). “The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation by Charles Lyell”, p.421

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When the aggregate amount of solid matter transported by rivers in a given number of centuries from a large continent, shall be reduced to arithmetical computation, the result will appear most astonishing to those...not in the habit of reflecting how many of the mightiest of operations in nature are effected insensibly, without noise or disorder.

Charles Lyell

Science, Rivers, Numbers

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The question now at issue, whether the living species are connected with the extinct by a common bond of descent, will best be cleared up by devoting ourselves to the study of the actual state of the living world, and to those monuments of the past in which the relics of the animate creation of former ages are best preserved and least mutilated by the hand of time.

Charles Lyell

Science, Past, Issues

Sir Charles Lyell (1863). “The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man: With Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation”, p.470

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I may conclude this chapter by quoting a saying of Professor Agassiz, that whenever a new and startling fact is brought to light in science, people first say, 'it is not true,' then that 'it is contrary to religion,' and lastly, 'that everybody knew it before.'

Charles Lyell

Truth, Science, Light

Charles Lyell (2005). “The Geological Evidence of Man”, p.82, Cosimo, Inc.

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Born: November 14, 1797
Died: February 22, 1875
Occupation: Lawyer
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