“All known living bodies are sharply divided into two special kingdoms, based upon the essential differences which distinguish animals from plants, and in spite of what has been said, I am convinced that these two kingdoms do not really merge into one another at any point.”

The form follows the function.

It is not always the magnitude of the differences observed between species that must determine specific distinctions, but the constant preservation of those differences in reproduction.

It is not enough to discover and prove a useful truth previously unknown, but that it is necessary also to be able to propagate it and get it recognized.

All knowledge that is not the real product of observation, or of consequences deduced from observation, is entirely groundless and illusory.

Habits form a second nature.

What nature does in the course of long periods we do every day when we suddenly change the environment in which some species of living plant is situated.

It is not the organs-that is, the character and form of the animal’s bodily parts-that have given rise to its habits and particular structures. It is the habits and manner of life and the conditions in which its ancestors lived that have in the course of time fashioned its bodily form, its organs and qualities.

I know just about everything that really goes on with domestic violence.

Not being known doesn’t stop the truth from being true.

There’s never going to be a united Ireland, you know.

That is a dream also; only he has remained asleep, while you have awakened; and who knows which of you is the most fortunate?

I know it won’t be eight medals again. If you want to compare me to that, that’s your decision, not mine. I’m going out there to try to accomplish the things that I have in my mind and in my heart.

A wet spot on the floor kind of put a scare in myself, so you never know inside those lines what might happen.

I’ve been in that situation three or four times before where I’m losing the fight – the fight seems almost over with – and I knew I had to finish him and stop playing possum as much.

It would be cool to let people know that it doesn’t matter what kind of background you have in your past, that you can still make something out of your life.