Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin Quotes
38 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
By firm immutable immortal laws
Impress'd on Nature by the GREAT FIRST CAUSE,
Say, MUSE! how rose from elemental strife
Organic forms, and kindled into life;
How Love and Sympathy with potent charm
Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm;
Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains,
And bind Society in golden chains.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the field of air.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
Opium is the only drug to be rely'd on—all the boasted nostrums only take up time, and as the disease [is] often of short duration, or of small quantity, they have gain'd credit which they do not deserve.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
Life is a forced state! I am surprized that we live, rather than that our friends die.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
Would it be too bold to imagine that, in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions and associations, and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down these improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
On being asked whether his stammering caused him inconvenience:
No, Sir, because I have time to think before I speak, and don't ask impertinent questions.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
Whilst I am writing to a Philosopher and a Friend, I can scarcely forget that I am also writing to the greatest Statesman of the present, or perhaps of any century, who spread the happy contagion of Liberty among his countrymen.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
I much condole with you on your late loss...pains and diseases of the mind are only cured by Forgetfulness;—Reason but skins the wound, which is perpetually liable to fester again.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
[Retirement] is a dangerous experiment, and generally ends in either drunkenness or hypochrondriacism.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
Such is the condition of organic nature! whose first law might be expressed in the words 'Eat or be eaten!' and which would seem to be one great slaughter-house, one universal scene of rapacity and injustice!
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
For if we may compare infinities, it would seem to require a greater infinity of power to cause the causes of effects, than to cause the effects themselves. This idea is analogous to the improving excellence observable in every part of the creation; such as in the progressive increase of the solid or habitable parts of the earth from water; and in the progressive increase of the wisdom and happiness of its inhabitants; and is consonant to the idea of our present situation being a state of probation, which by our exertion we may improve, and are consequently responsible for our actions.
Erasmus Darwin
Source
Report...
It is often hazardous to marry an heiress, as she is not unfrequently the last of a diseased family.
Erasmus Darwin
1
2
Quote of the day
Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.
Dorothy L. Sayers
Erasmus Darwin
Creative Commons
Born:
December 12, 1731
Died:
April 18, 1802
(aged 70)
Bio:
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet.
Known for:
Zoonomia (1794)
The Botanic Garden (1789)
The Temple of Nature
Most used words:
nature
time
life
parent
idea
organic
suns
Erasmus Darwin on Wikipedia
Erasmus Darwin works on Gutenberg Project
Erasmus Darwin works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Erasmus Darwin Quotes
Quotes about Erasmus Darwin
English Physician Quotes
Physician Quotes
18th-century Physician Quotes
Related People
Charles Darwin
British Naturalist
Charles Lyell
British Geologist
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes