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Portrait of Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

(1797–1875) Geologist

37 quotes in 351 categories

Charles Lyell was a geologist, best known for Principles of geology.

Quick Facts About Charles Lyell

Born: November 14, 1797
Died: February 11, 1875
Profession: Geologist
Notable works: Principles of geology

About Charles Lyell

Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles Darwin and as the author of Principles of Geology (1830–33), which presented to a wide public audience the idea that the earth was shaped by the same natural processes still in operation today, operating at similar intensities. The philosopher William Whewell dubbed this gradualistic view "uniformitarianism" and contrasted it with catastrophism, which had been championed by Georges Cuvier and was better accepted in Europe. The combination of evidence and eloquence in Principles convinced a wide range of readers of the significance of "deep time" for understanding the earth and environment.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Charles Lyell

It was a profound saying of Wilhelm Humboldt, that 'Man is man only by means of speech, but in order to invent…

Communication

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In reply, I can only plead that a discovery which seems to contradict the general tenor of previous investigations is naturally received…

Contradict

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Such discoveries have led me, and other geologists, to reconsider the evidence previously derived from caves brought forward in proof of the…

Antiquity

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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…

Anatomy

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Probably there was a beginning-it is a metaphysical question, worthy a theologian-species have begun and ended-but the analogy is faint and distant.

Analogies

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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…

Chapters

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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…

Conclusion

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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…

Apples

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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…

Accounts

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So far, therefore, as we can draw safe conclusions from a single specimen, there has been no marked change of race in…

Above

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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…

Animal

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That ere long, now that curiosity has been so much excited on this subject, some human remains will be detected in the…

Curiosity

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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…

Causes

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The present is the key to the past

Anger

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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

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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…

Age

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It has long been a fact familiar to geologists, that, both on the east and west coasts of the central part of…

Beach

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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…

Attempting

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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…

Acting

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No tools have yet been met with in any of the gravels occurring at the higher levels of the valley of the…

Facts

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In several sections, both natural in the banks of the Mississippi and its numerous arms, and where artificial canals had been cut,…

Arms

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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…

Accounts

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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…

Ancient

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

Creation

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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…

Endure

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Charles Lyell by topic

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