“How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.”

We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.

Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life.

The most powerful natural species are those that adapt to environmental change without losing their fundamental identity which gives them their competitive advantage.

Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.

In conclusion, it appears that nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in distant countries.

I am dying by inches, from not having any body to talk to about insects.

Light may be shed on man and his origins.

It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.

Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.

I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.

Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.

For the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.

Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.

Children are wonderful, and they add to my whole life.

I had two sisters carried away in a chain-gang – one of them left two children. We were always uneasy.

I want to be the perfect child. I owe so much to my parents and the way I was brought up.

Tell the children the truth.

It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education.

If we can afford war, we can afford to support children going hungry.

I have changed nothing, my style of play is still that of a child.

Children teach us to see reality with a trusting and pure gaze.