Charles Darwin Quotes

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• It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats.

  Charles Darwin

  Mean, Intelligent, Survival

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  The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

  Charles Darwin

  Love, Life, Nature

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.25, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The world will not be inherited by the strongest, it will be inherited by those most able to change.

  Charles Darwin

  World, Able, Progressive

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  A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Life, Encouraging

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.145, Courier Corporation

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• Building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.

  Charles Darwin

  Building, Results, Mice

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• It is not the biggest, the brightest or the best that will survive, but those who adapt the quickest.

  Charles Darwin

  Leadership, Teaching, Learning

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• We are optimists, until we are not.

  Charles Darwin

  Optimist

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

  Charles Darwin

  Form, Relation

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• It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate the mind.

  Charles Darwin

  Ideas, Giving, Feelings

  Philip Parker King, Sir Francis Darwin, Robert Fitzroy, Charles Darwin (1839). “Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle: Between the Years 1826 and 1836 ...”, p.29

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

  Charles Darwin

  Teamwork, Creativity, Knowledge

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.23, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The lower animals, on the other hand, must have their bodily structure modified in order to survive under greatly changed conditions. They must be rendered stronger, or acquire more effective teeth or claws, in order to defend themselves from new enemies; or they must be reduced in size so as to escape detection and danger. When they migrate into a colder climate they must become clothed with thicker fur, or have their constitutions altered. If they fail to be thus modified, they will cease to exist.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Hands, Order

  Charles Darwin (1952). “The origin of species by means of natural selection: The descent of man and selection in relation to sex”

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  The more one thinks, the more one feels the hopeless immensity of man's ignorance.

  Charles Darwin

  Ignorance, Men, Thinking

  Charles Darwin (1903). “More Letters of Charles Darwin (Complete)”, p.520, Library of Alexandria

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• With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Men, Theory Of Evolution

  "The Descent of Man". Book by Charles Darwin, February 24, 1871.

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• With highly civilised nations continued progress depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; for such nations do not supplant and exterminate one another as do savage tribes.

  Charles Darwin

  Progress, Degrees, Savages

  Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.199, Diversion Books

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• I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things. As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs.

  Charles Darwin

  Art, Night, Men

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.494, Broadview Press

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

  Charles Darwin

  Attention, Astonishment, Graduates

  Charles Darwin (1872). “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, p.278

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• How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the world, so deeply impressed on the minds of men; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain is impressionable, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason.

  Charles Darwin

  Religious, Men, Essence

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of man”, p.95

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• Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have found it so--than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Mind, Bears

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.62, Harvard University Press

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

  Charles Darwin

  Victory, Important, May

  Charles Darwin (2016). “On the Origin of Species: the Evolution”, p.55, VM eBooks

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• It is a truly wonderful fact - the wonder of which we are apt to overlook from familiarity - that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in group subordinate to group.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Space, Facts

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.176, Broadview Press

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• From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, War, Animal

  On the Origin of Species ch. 14 (1859)

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• Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.

  Charles Darwin

  Science, Long, Doe

  Charles Darwin (2010). “Natural Selection”, p.202, Bibliolis Books

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• Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress.

  Charles Darwin

  Believe, Men, Long

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.433, Broadview Press

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

  Charles Darwin

  Powerful, Giving, Environmental

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• I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.

  Charles Darwin

  Thinking, Competition, Suffering

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.3831, Delphi Classics

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