Adam Sedgwick Quotes

6 Sourced Quotes

If the [Vestiges] be true, the labours of sober induction are in vain; religion is a lie; human law is a mass of folly, and a base injustice; morality is moonshine; our labours for the black people of Africa were works of madmen; and man and woman are only better beasts!

Adam Sedgwick
Considered as a mere question of physics, (and keeping all moral considerations entirely out of sight,) the appearance of man is a geological phenomenon of vast importance, indirectly modifying the whole surface of the earth, breaking in upon any supposition of zoological continuity, and utterly unaccounted for by what we have any right to call the laws of nature.

Adam Sedgwick
The powers of nature are never in repose; her work never stands still.

Adam Sedgwick
We cannot take one step in geology without drawing upon the fathomless stores of by-gone time.
Letter to William Wordsworth

Adam Sedgwick
The world is not as it was when it came from its Maker's hands. It has been modified by many great revolutions, brought about by an inner mechanism of which we very imperfectly comprehend the movements; but of which we gain a glimpse by studying their effects: and their many causes still acting on the surface of our globe with undiminished power, which are changing, and will continue to change it, as long as it shall last.

Adam Sedgwick
I cannot promise to teach you all geology, I can only fire your imaginations.

Adam Sedgwick