Charles Darwin Quotes - Page 13

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• Nothing can be more hopeless than to attempt to explain this similarity of pattern in members of the same class, by utility or by the doctrine of final causes.

  Charles Darwin

  Class, Doctrine, Finals

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.364, Broadview Press

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• Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations whereas species were formerly thus connected.

  Charles Darwin

  Science, Belief, Latter

  Charles Darwin (1988). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 16: The Origin of Species, 1876”, p.443, NYU Press

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• The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Form, Conclusion

  Charles Darwin (2004). “Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.550, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Ideas, Long

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of Man: And Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.395

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• Every one must be struck with astonishment, when he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral-rock, often many leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green color.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, Ocean, Reflection

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 7: The Geology of the Voyage of the H. M. S. Beagle, Part I: Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs”, p.3, NYU Press

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• It is a fatal fault to reason whilst observing, though so necessary beforehand and so useful afterwards.

  Charles Darwin

  Faults, Reason, Observing

  Charles Darwin, Richard Keynes (2005). “Charles Darwin's Zoology Notes and Specimen Lists from H. M. S. Beagle”, p.10, Cambridge University Press

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• Describing laughter: The sound is produced by a deep inspiration followed by short, interrupted, spasmodic contractions of the chest, and especially the diaphragm... the mouth is open more or less widely, with the corners drawn much backwards, as well as a little upwards; and the upper lip is somewhat raised.

  Charles Darwin

  Laughter, Inspiration, Sound

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• A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone.

  Charles Darwin

  Heart, Science, Men

  Charles Darwin, R. C. Stauffer (1987). “Charles Darwin's Natural Selection: Being the Second Part of His Big Species Book Written from 1856 to 1858”, p.279, Cambridge University Press

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• We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Science, Survival

  On the Origin of Species ch. 3 (1859) See Malthus 2

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• Some few, and I am one of them, even wish to God, though at the loss of millions of lives, that the North would proclaim a crusade against slavery. In the long-run, a million horrid deaths would be amply repaid in the cause of humanity. Great God! how I should like to see the greatest curse on earth - slavery - abolished!

  Charles Darwin

  Death, Running, Loss

  "The Autobiography of Charles Darwin".

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• A bad earthquake at once destroys the oldest associations: the world, the very emblem of all that is solid, has moved beneath our feet like a crust over a fluid; one second of time has conveyed to the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflection would never have created.

  Charles Darwin

  Reflection, Earthquakes, Ideas

  Charles Darwin, R. D. Keynes (2001). “Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary”, p.292, Cambridge University Press

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• It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original.

  Charles Darwin

  Believe, Science, Views

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.211, Courier Corporation

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• You ask about my opinion on vivisection. I quite agree that it is justifiable for real investigations on physiology; but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity.

  Charles Darwin

  Real, Science, Animal

  "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution".

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• Why does man regret, even though he may endeavour to banish any such regret, that he has followed the one natural impulse, rather than the other; and why does he further feel that he ought to regret his conduct? Man in this respect differs profoundly from the lower animals.

  Charles Darwin

  Regret, Science, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.531, Broadview Press

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• Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, ... I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.

  Charles Darwin

  Mean, Long, Obscure

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.6, Harvard University Press

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• On seeing the marsupials in Australia for the first time and comparing them to placental mammals: “An unbeliever . . . might exclaim 'Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work'”

  Charles Darwin

  Thinking, Two, Australia

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• I find in the domestic duck that the bones of the wing weigh less and the bones of the leg more, in proportion to the whole skeleton, than do the same bones in the wild duck; and this change may be safely attributed to the domestic duck flying much less, and walking more, than its wild parents.

  Charles Darwin

  Change, Science, Skeletons

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Origin of Species: A Variorum Text”, p.83, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• The explanation of types of structure in classes - as resulting from the will of the Deity, to create animals on certain plans - is no explanation. It has not the character of a physical law and is therefore utterly useless. It foretells nothing because we know nothing of the will of the Deity, how it acts and whether constant or inconstant like that of man.

  Charles Darwin

  Character, Men, Animal

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• If a person asked my advice, before undertaking a long voyage, my answer would depend upon his possessing a decided taste for some branch of knowledge, which could by this means be advanced. No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures gained at the time do not counterbalance the evils.

  Charles Darwin

  Country, Mean, Race

  Charles Darwin (2008). “The Voyage of the Beagle”, p.503, Cosimo, Inc.

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• It at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed.

  Charles Darwin

  Variation, Economics, Destroyed

  "Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution".

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• A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct actions of external conditions, and so forth.

  Charles Darwin

  Law, Direct Action, Growth

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.486, Harvard University Press

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• Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but at last was complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct.

  Charles Darwin

  Lasts, Rate, Conclusion

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 29: “Erasmus Darwin” by Ernest Krause, with a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin; “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” Edited by Nora Barlow; and Consolidated Index”, p.119, NYU Press

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• Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous small details of habits, tastes and dispositions between two or more domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument that all are descended from a common progenitor who was thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed under the same species. The same argument may be applied with much force to the races of man.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Two, Race

  Charles Darwin (1872). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.225

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• The several difficulties here discussed, namely our not finding in the successive formations infinitely numerous transitional links between the many species which now exist or have existed; the sudden manner in which whole groups of species appear in our European formations; the almost entire absence, as at present known, of fossiliferous formations beneath the Silurian strata, are all undoubtedly of the gravest nature.

  Charles Darwin

  Groups, Links, Absence

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Origin of Species: A Variorum Text”, p.518, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Principles, Enough

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 29: “Erasmus Darwin” by Ernest Krause, with a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin; “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” Edited by Nora Barlow; and Consolidated Index”, p.101, NYU Press

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