H.W. Charles Quotes

By different methods different men excel, but where is he who can do all things well?

Childhood, who like an April morn appears, Sunshine and rain, hopes clouded o'er with fears.

A servile race Who, in mere want of fault, all merit place; Who blind obedience pay to ancient schools, Bigots to Greece, and slaves to musty rules.

Nature, through all her works, in great degree, Borrows a blessing from variety. Music itself her needful aid requires To rouse the soul, and wake our dying fires.

Enough of self, that darling luscious theme, O'er which philosophers in raptures dream; Of which with seeming disregard they write Then prizing most when most they seem to slight.

Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, In such a state as theirs, is downright treason.

Be England what she will, With all her faults she is my country still.

To copy beauty forfeits all pretense to fame; to copy faults is want of sense

Greatly his foes he dreads, but more his friends; He hurts me most who lavishly commends.

To copy faults is want of sense.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.

Men the most infamous are fond of fame, And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame.

With various readings stored his empty skull, Learn'd without sense, and venerably dull.

Though folly, robed in purple, shines, Though vice exhausts Peruvian mines, Yet shall they tremble and turn pale When satire wields her mighty flail.

Amongst the sons of men how few are known Who dare be just to merit not their own.

The more haste, ever the worst speed.

Fool beckons fool, and dunce awakens dunce.

Constant attention wears the active mind, Blots out our pow'rs, and leaves a blank behind.

Wilberforce and the band of abolitionists knew that a private faith that did not act in the face of oppression was no faith at all.

God uses prisons to train people for future roles of leadership or martyrdom.

We humans, you see, have an infinite capacity for self-rationalization.

I spent a lot of time [between takes] apologising to Peter Dinklage [Dance's on-screen son, Tyrion Lannister] because I treat him appallingly.

You have to attempt to be objective about yourself.

A car to pick me up every day, a chair with my name on it, everybody being very polite... what can you do except sit back and watch it all, try to take it all in?

I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley

The willing horse is always overworked.

I am dying by inches, from not having any body to talk to about insects.

A language, like a species, when extinct, never... reappears.

Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions.

Mere chance ... alone would never account for so habitual and large an amount of difference as that between varieties of the same species.

Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

I agree with Agassiz that dogs possess something very like conscience.

Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

We have happy days, remember good dinners.

Disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but at last it was complete.

Nothing can be more hopeless than to attempt to explain this similarity of pattern in members of the same class, by utility or by the doctrine of final causes.

It is a fatal fault to reason whilst observing, though so necessary beforehand and so useful afterwards.

It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original.

Our faculties are more fitted to recognize the wonderful structure of a beetle than a Universe.

The survival or preservation of certain favoured words in the struggle for existence is natural selection.

The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form.

You ask about my opinion on vivisection. I quite agree that it is justifiable for real investigations on physiology; but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity.

Man is developed from an ovule, about 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs in no respect from the ovules of other animals.

Animals manifestly enjoy excitement, and suffer from annul and may exhibit curiosity.

Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an hermaphrodite! Here is a pleasant genealogy for mankind.

In the survival of favoured individuals and races, during the constantly-recurring struggle for existence, we see a powerful and ever-acting form of selection.

I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is a proof of earnestness.

As the sense of smell is so intimately connected with that of taste, it is not surprising that an excessively bad odour should excite wretching or vomitting in some persons.

Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject my theory.

I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me.