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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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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Building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.

Charles Darwin

Building, Results, Mice

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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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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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Not one change of species into another is on record ... we cannot prove that a single species has been changed.

Charles Darwin

Records, Fossils, Changed

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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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I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

Charles Darwin

Funny, Dull, Insult

1860 The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol.1.

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A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Cat, Science

Quoted in John D Barrow Pie in the Sky, Counting, Thinking and Being (1992).

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There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.

Charles Darwin

Pain, Animal, Men

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

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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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Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a great deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.

Charles Darwin

Believe, Humble, Men

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Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Confidence, Atheist

Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.6343, Delphi Classics

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Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Needs, Species

Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.5, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.

Charles Darwin

Change, Strength, Struggle

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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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I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Hair, Theory Of Evolution

On the Origin of Species ch. 3 (1859)

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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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It is impossible to concieve of this immense and wonderful universe as the result of blind chance or necessity.

Charles Darwin

Chance, Impossible, Wonderful

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I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation, & therefore not in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Charles Darwin

Jesus, Sorry, Believe

Letter to Frederick McDermott, www.darwinproject.ac.uk. November 24, 1880.

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It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

Charles Darwin

Intellectual, Able, Changing Environment

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If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Nature, Science

Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.859, Delphi Classics

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

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