Charles Darwin Quotes - Page 14

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It's an awful stretcher to believe that a peacock's tail was thus formed but ... most people just don't get it - I must be a very bad explainer

Charles Darwin

Believe, People, Tails

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Jealousy was plainly exhibited when I fondled a large doll, and when I weighed his infant sister, he being then 15? months old. Seeing how strong a feeling of jealousy is in dogs, it would probably be exhibited by infants at any earlier age than just specified if they were tried in a fitting manner

Charles Darwin

Dog, Strong, Emotional

Charles Darwin “Charles Darwin: An Anthology”, Transaction Publishers

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But when on shore, & wandering in the sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than even Claude ever imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced it can understand.

Charles Darwin

Views, Tree, Sublime

Charles Darwin (1902). “Charles Darwin: His Life in an Autobiographical Chapter and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters”, p.266, Library of Alexandria

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I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Science, Machines

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...I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton.— Let each man hope & believe what he can.—

Charles Darwin

Dog, Believe, Knowledge

Charles Darwin, Frederick Burkhardt (1993). “The Correspondence of Charles Darwin:”, p.224, Cambridge University Press

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If I had life to live over again, I would give my life to poetry, to music, to literature, and to art to make life richer and happier. In my youth I steeled myself against them and thought them so much waste.

Charles Darwin

Art, Giving, Literature

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Who when examining in the cabinet of the entomologist the gay and exotic butterflies, and singular cicadas, will associate with these lifeless objects, the ceaseless harsh music of the latter, and the lazy flight of the former - the sure accompaniments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics.

Charles Darwin

Butterfly, Gay, Glowing

Charles Darwin (1864). “Journal of Researches Into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World: Under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy”, p.299

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With mammals the male appears to win the female much more through the law of battle than through the display of his charms.

Charles Darwin

Winning, Law, Battle

Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man: the Evolution”, p.446, VM eBooks

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Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pressure of the acutest grief; whereas in some parts of the Continent the men shed tears much more readily and freely.

Charles Darwin

Grief, Men, Tears

Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 23: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, p.117, NYU Press

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Man is developed from an ovule, about 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs in no respect from the ovules of other animals.

Charles Darwin

Science, Animal, Men

Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of man”, p.14

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Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an hermaphrodite! Here is a pleasant genealogy for mankind.

Charles Darwin

Swimming, Science, Animal

Charles Darwin (2016). “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution”, p.453, VM eBooks

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The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen-this again offers contradiction to constant succession of germs in progress.

Charles Darwin

Science, Tree, Progress

Charles Darwin, Thomas F. Glick, David Kohn (1996). “On Evolution: The Development of the Theory of Natural Selection”, p.54, Hackett Publishing

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Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval [tropical] forests, ... temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature. No one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body.

Charles Darwin

God, Nature, Science

Charles Darwin (1879). “What Mr. Darwin Saw in His Voyage Round the World in the Ship "Beagle".”

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A celebrated author and divine has written to me that he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that he created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of his laws.

Charles Darwin

Believe, Self, Law

Charles Darwin (1869). “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.417

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Sympathy will have been increased through natural selection

Charles Darwin

Natural, Natural Selection, Has Beens

Charles Darwin (1875). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.107

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The man who walks with Henslow.

Charles Darwin

Science, Men, Biographies

Charles Darwin, John Stevens Henslow, Nora Barlow (1967). “Darwin and Henslow: The Growth of an Idea; Letters, 1831-1860”, p.7, Univ of California Press

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It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, &c., present, that a proteine compound was chemically formed ready to undergo stillmore complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.

Charles Darwin

Science, Light, Ifs And

"The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" edited by Francis Darwin, Volume III, Ch. 1, (p. 18), 1887.

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It occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made of this question (the origin of the species) by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it

Charles Darwin

Might, Facts, Made

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Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle.

Charles Darwin

Two, Different, Way

Charles Darwin (2016). “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution”, p.727, VM eBooks

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If man had not been his own classifier, he would never have thought of founding a separate order for his own reception.

Charles Darwin

Men, Order, Reception

Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.6454, Delphi Classics

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About weak points [of the Origin] I agree. The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder, but when I think of the fine known gradations, my reason tells me I ought to conquer the cold shudder.

Charles Darwin

Eye, Science, Thinking

Charles Darwin, Frederick Burkhardt (1993). “The Correspondence of Charles Darwin:”, p.75, Cambridge University Press

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...conscience looks backwards and judges past actions, inducing that kind of dissatisfaction, which if weak we call regret, and if severe remorse.

Charles Darwin

Regret, Past, Judging

Charles Darwin (2008). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.91, Princeton University Press

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The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.

Charles Darwin

Expression, Survival, Sometimes

On the Origin of Species, 5th ed., ch. 3 (1869) See Philander Johnson 1; Herbert Spencer 5; Herbert Spencer 6

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Whoever is led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously expressing his conviction; for only thus can the load of prejudice by which this subject is overwhelmed be removed.

Charles Darwin

Believe, Prejudice, Overwhelmed

Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.393, Broadview Press

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I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is a proof of earnestness.

Charles Darwin

Book, Writing, Long

Charles Darwin, Frederick Burkhardt, Sydney Smith (1985). “The Correspondence of Charles Darwin”, p.338, Cambridge University Press

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

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