“As our mother earth is a mere speck in the sunbeam in the illimitable universe, so man himself is but a tiny grain of protoplasm in the perishable framework of organic nature. [This] clearly indicates the true place of man in nature, but it dissipates the prevalent illusion of man's supreme importance and the arrogance with which he sets himself apart from the illimitable universe and exalts himself to the position of its most valuable element.”
![“As our mother earth is a mere speck in the sunbeam in the illimitable universe, so man himself is but a tiny grain of protoplasm in the perishable framework of organic nature. [This] clearly indicates the true place of man in nature, but it dissipates the prevalent illusion of man's supreme…” quote by Ernst Haeckel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ee4/ernst-haeckel-20972_arrogance_as-our-mother-earth-is-a-mere-speck-in-t_1972689.jpg)
![“We are compelled by reflection to recognize that God is not to be placed against the material world [as in Christianity], but must be placed as a 'divine power' or 'moving spirit' within the cosmos itself ... All the wonderful phenomena of nature around us, organic as well as inorganic, are only…” quote by Ernst Haeckel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2f0/ernst-haeckel-20972_christianity_we-are-compelled-by-reflection-to-recogn_133705.jpg)
![“Man is not distinguished from [the animals] by a special kind of soul, or by any peculiar and exclusive psychic function, but only by a higher degree of psychic activity, a superior stage of development.” quote by Ernst Haeckel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/83b/ernst-haeckel-20972_activity_man-is-not-distinguished-from-the-animal_721744.jpg)
![“Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of gradations as this [step by step, from humans to apes to monkeys to lemurs] - leading us insensibly from the crown and summit of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as it seems, to the…” quote by Thomas Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f0b/thomas-huxley-1183_animal_perhaps-no-order-of-mammals-presents-us_3051.jpg)
