Quote#Time
Surely if a single cell may, when subjected to certain influences,…
Quote byHerbert Spencer · 1820–1903
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Development Hypothesis (1852).
English (original)
Surely if a single cell may, when subjected to certain influences, become a man in the space of twenty years; there is nothing absurd in the hypothesis that under certain other influences, a cell may, in the course of millions of years, give origin to the human race.
— Herbert Spencer
More from Herbert Spencer
Evil perpetually tends to disappear.
Man needed one moral constitution to fit him for his original state; he needs another to fit him for his present state; and he has been, is, and will long continue to be, in process of adaptation.
The truth is, that those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
All evil results from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions. This is true of everything that lives. Does a shrub dwindle in poor soil, or become sickly when deprived of light, or die outright if removed to a cold climate? it is …
The current opinion that science and poetry are opposed is a delusion.
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.