A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives—of approving of some and disapproving of others.
He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not at all in agreement.
One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.
As for future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.
Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.
It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.
We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.
Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science.
It is necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected.
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us and I for one must be content to remain agnostic.
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
As for a future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague possibilities.
The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate and is sometimes equally convenient.
To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.
If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.
![[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived.](https://www.quoteslyfe.com/images/collection1/quotations225/Alexander-von-Humboldt-was-the-greatest-scientific-225112.jpg)
