[It] is the little causes, long continued, which are considered as bringing about the greatest changes of the earth.

In matters of science, curiosity gratified begets not indolence, but new desires.

The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.

As there is not in human observation proper means for measuring the waste of land upon the globe, it is hence inferred, that we cannot estimate the duration of what we see at present, nor calculate the period at which it had begun so that, with respect to human observation, this world has neither a beginning nor an end.

Error, never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from the accurate examination of every circumstance.

The globe of this earth … [is] … not just a machine but also a organised body as it has a regenerative power.

The result, therefore, of this physical enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.