Quote#Friendship
When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its…
Quote byCharles Darwin · 1809–1882
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 23..
English (original)
When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its burrow—to use the expression employed by a friend—we are at first led to look at the action as a reflex one.
— Charles Darwin
More from Charles Darwin
… cell of a tentacle, showing the various forms successively assumed by the aggregated masses of protoplasm.
[T]he young and the old of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements.
Through the principle of associated habit, the same movements of the face and eyes are practised, and can, indeed, hardly be avoided, whenever we know or believe that others are blaming, or too strongly praising, our moral conduct.
Even insects express anger, terror, jealousy, and love by their stridulation.
The Beagle staid at St. Helena five days, during which time I lived in the clouds in the centre of the Isd.—It is a curious little world within itself; the habitable part is surrounded by a broad band of black desolate rocks, as if the …
The subject may appear an insignificant one, but we shall see that it possesses some interest; and the maxim "de minimis lex non curat," does not apply to science.