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There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one;
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“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one;”

Charles Darwin

Source
On the Origin of Species
Date
1859
Meaning

Meaning of “There is grandeur in this view of life,…”

Darwin closes the first edition by presenting evolutionary change from simple beginnings as a source of intellectual grandeur rather than diminishment.

Source context

Where does it come from?

On the Origin of Species, closing paragraph, first-edition wording represented by Project Gutenberg #1228. Later editions inserted “by the Creator” into this sentence; this record deliberately follows the 1859 form and keeps the quotation inside Darwin’s scientific argument about descent with modification.

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Ideas connected with this quotation

BeautifulCuriosityDeepLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceNatureThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite Reflection
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The greatness and the minuteness of nature pass all understanding.
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“The greatness and the minuteness of nature pass all understanding.”

John Burroughs · Wake-Robin · 1871
Meaning & context

Burroughs emphasizes that nature can astonish at both immense and tiny scales, leaving observation capable of deepening wonder rather than exhausting it.

Source details

Wake-Robin; Burroughs reflects on close observation of natural life and the limits of easy comprehension.

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The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
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“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Nature · 1836
Meaning & context

Emerson connects wisdom with renewed attention, suggesting that curiosity does not always require exotic objects because ordinary experience becomes remarkable when examined closely.

Source details

Nature (first published 1836), Chapter VIII, “Prospects,” in James Munroe and Company’s 1849 new-edition witness represented by Project Gutenberg #29433. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common” appears near the essay’s close during Emerson’s discussion of prayer, study, facts and ideas. This collection retains 1836 as first-publication year while the evidence layer identifies the reviewed 1849 witness; the sentence remains Transcendentalist philosophical rhetoric rather than an experimentally established measure of wisdom.

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And here, too, one learns that the world, though made, is yet being made.
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“And here, too, one learns that the world, though made, is yet being made.”

John Muir · Travels in Alaska · 1915
Meaning & context

Landscape is presented as an ongoing process rather than a finished backdrop, with glaciers, rivers, soil, and future ecosystems continuously reshaping one another.

Source details

Travels in Alaska, exploration of the Stickeen glaciers; Muir describes glacial processes as continuing creation.

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When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
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“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

John Muir · My First Summer in the Sierra · 1911
Meaning & context

Muir emphasizes ecological interconnection: examining one living or physical thing closely leads outward into relationships with the wider natural system.

Source details

My First Summer in the Sierra, journal entry in the Project Gutenberg public-domain text.

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But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her most Have never passed her haunted house, Nor simplified her ghost.
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“But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her most Have never passed her haunted house, Nor simplified her ghost.”

Emily Dickinson · A Well — Emily Dickinson · 1896
Meaning & context

Even close observers do not fully explain nature in this ending; familiarity with natural objects leaves room for strangeness, uncertainty and intellectual humility.

Source details

“A Well,” Poems: Third Series (1896), Project Gutenberg #12242. The ghost and haunted-house language is metaphorical, emphasizing nature's unresolved mystery.

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For wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and Love is of the beautiful; and therefore Love is also a philosopher or lover of wisdom
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“For wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and Love is of the beautiful; and therefore Love is also a philosopher or lover of wisdom”

Plato · Symposium · c. 385–370 BCE
Voice: Reported speaker · Diotima, recounted by Socrates
Meaning & context

Diotima links love with philosophy by treating wisdom as something beautiful that the lover does not fully possess but continues to seek, placing philosophical desire between ignorance and completed wisdom.

Source details

Symposium, Socrates recounting Diotima’s teaching, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1600. The represented wording belongs to Diotima’s account of Love as intermediate between the wise and the ignorant.