49 Quotes by Alfred Russel Wallace

I have since wandered among men of many races and many religions.

To the mass of mankind religion of some kind is a necessity

I hold with Henry George, that at the back of every great social evil will be found a great political wrong

What birds can have their bills more peculiarly formed than the ibis, the spoonbill, and the heron?

As well might it be said that, because we are ignorant of the laws by which metals are produced and trees developed, we cannot know anything of the origin of steamships and railways

Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained.

Mars, therefore, is not only uninhabited by intelligent beings such as Mr. Lowell postulates, but is absolutely uninhabitable.

Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species.

Why do some die and some live? The answer was clearly, that on the whole the best fitted live. From the effects of disease the most healthy escaped; from enemies, the strongest, swiftest, or the most cunning; from famine, the best hunters or those with the best digestion; and so on. Then it suddenly flashed upon me that this self-acting process would necessarily improve the race, because in every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain-that is, the fittest would survive.