Home / Quotes / Quote by John Burroughs

Quote by John Burroughs

“Science sees the process of evolution from the outside, as one might a train of cars going by, and resolves it into the physical and mechanical elements, without getting any nearer the reason of its going by, or the point of its departure or destination.”

Quote by John Burroughs

Book:Under the Apple-Trees

Work

Under the Apple-Trees

Under the Apple-Trees is a story that unfolds in a picturesque rural landscape, focusing on the interconnected lives of the residents. The narrative delves into the dynamics of family relationships and the bonds that hold a community together. The setting, characterized by its lush apple orchards, serves as a backdrop for the characters' personal growth and collective experiences. more

Author

John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American essayist and naturalist, widely regarded as the father of American nature writing. Born in Roxbury, New York, he worked as a teacher and journalist before dedicating himself to observing and writing about nature. His works, such as Wake-Robin and Winter Sunshine, are celebrated for their vivid descriptions and philosophical depth. A close friend of poet Walt Whitman, Burroughs emphasized the spiritual connection between humans and the natural world. His writings influenced early conservation movements and continue to inspire readers today. more

You May Also Like

“Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related group of birds, one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends.”

Different Ends Might Science Taken Seeing Groups Evolution Diversity Bird Originals Structure Species Related Fancy

Book:On the Origin of Species

Source: On the Origin of Species

“Some folks seem to have descended from the chimpanzee much later than others.”

Seems Science Evolution Folks Chimpanzees

Author:Kin Hubbard

“Species do not grow more perfect: the weaker dominate the strong, again and again- the reason being that they are the great majority, and they are also cleverer. Darwin forgot the mind (-that is English!): the weak possess more mind. ... To acquire mind, one must need mind-one loses it when one no longer needs it.”

Needs Mind Reason Science Strong Grows Loses Perfect Evolution Survival Weak Majority Species Acquire Again And Again

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“The species and the genus are always the work of nature [i.e. specially created]; the variety mostly that of circumstance; the class and the order are the work of nature and art.”

Art Science Order Nature Class Evolution Circumstances Species Variety Nature And Art

Author:Carl Linnaeus

“The central problem of biological evolution is the nature of mutation, but hitherto the occurrence of this has been wholly refractory and impossible to influence by artificial means, although a control of it might obviously place the process of evolution in our hands.”

Mean Has Beens Problem Hands Might Science Process Impossible Influence Evolution Biology Artificial Mutation Biological Evolution

Author:Hermann Joseph Muller

“The Epicureans, according to whom animals had no creation, doe suppose that by mutation of one into another, they were first made; for they are the substantial part of the world; like as Anaxagoras and Euripides affirme in these tearmes: nothing dieth, but in changing as they doe one for another they show sundry formes.”

World Firsts Doe Made Shows Science Change Animal Creation Evolution Mutation Epicurean

Author:Plutarch

“The equation of evolution with progress represents our strongest cultural impediment to a proper understanding of this greatest biological revolution in the history of human thought.”

Humans Science Understanding Progress Revolution Evolution Strongest Equations Impediments Human Thought

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

“The existence of trousers proves that God meant us to be bipeds.”

Science Existence Evolution Prove Science And Religion Trousers

Author:David C.H. Austin

“The first objection to Darwinism is that it is only a guess and was never anything more. It is called a "hypothesis," but the word "hypothesis," though euphonious, dignified and high-sounding, is merely a scientific synonym for the old-fashioned word "guess." If Darwin had advanced his views as a guess they would not have survived for a year, but they have floated for half a century, buoyed up by the inflated word "hypothesis." When it is understood that "hypothesis" means "guess," people will inspect it more carefully before accepting it.”

“The geologist, in those tables of stone which form his records, finds no examples of dynasties once passed away again returning. There has no repetition of the dynasty of the fish, of the reptile, of the mammal. The dynasty of the future is to have glorified man for its inhabitant; but it is to be the dynasty-"the kingdom"-not of glorified man made in the image of God, but of God himself in the form man.”

Source: The Testimony of the Rocks: Or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed