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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In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God ... I think that generally (& more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind.

Charles Darwin

Atheist, Thinking, Mind

Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.11757, Delphi Classics

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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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The more I study nature, the more I become impressed with ever-increasing force with the conclusion, that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations slowly acquired through each part occasionally varying in a slight degree but in many ways, with the preservation or natural selection of those variations which are beneficial to the organism under the complex and ever-varying conditions of life, transcend in an incomparable degree the contrivances and adaptations which the most fertile imagination of man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal.

Charles Darwin

Beautiful, Nature, Men

"On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects: And on the Good Effects of Intercrossing".

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I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animal, the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important....It is the most noble of all the attributes of man.

Charles Darwin

Animal, Men, Differences

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... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.

Charles Darwin

Earth, Firsts, Form

Charles Darwin (2007). “On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.303, Cosimo, Inc.

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I conclude that the musical notes and rhythms were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex.

Charles Darwin

Music, Sex, Opposites

Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.7535, Delphi Classics

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It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Men, Evil

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When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly forsee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history.

Charles Darwin

Views, Revolution, Natural

Charles Darwin (2007). “On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.303, Cosimo, Inc.

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I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.

Charles Darwin

God, Garden, Thinking

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When it was first said that the sun stood still and world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei [the voice of the people is the voice of God], as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science.

Charles Darwin

Eye, Voice, People

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I think it can be shown that there is such an unerring power at work in Natural Selection, which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being.

Charles Darwin

Thinking, Natural, Natural Selection

Charles Darwin, Thomas F. Glick, David Kohn (1996). “On Evolution: The Development of the Theory of Natural Selection”, p.154, Hackett Publishing

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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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There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties...The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.

Charles Darwin

Animal, Equality, Men

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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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Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.

Charles Darwin

Law, Free Will, Fixed

Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.431, Broadview Press

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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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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 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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The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children.

Charles Darwin

Children, Pain, Animal

Charles Darwin (2007). “The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition”, p.107, Penguin

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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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I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.

Charles Darwin

Men, Ideas, People

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Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms.

Charles Darwin

Form, Fine, Origin Of Species

Charles Darwin (2010). “The Origin of Species: A Variorum Text”, p.321, University of Pennsylvania Press

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Born: February 12, 1809
Died: April 19, 1882
Occupation: Naturalist
Cite this Page: Citation

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