Charles Darwin Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection and would be left a fluctuating element.

Charles Darwin

Science, Survival, Would Be

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.92

11 Copy quote
There is no fundamental difference between humans and the higher mammalsin their mental faculties

Charles Darwin

Differences, Fundamentals, Faculty

10 Copy quote
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

13 Copy quote
Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

Charles Darwin

Humility, Men, Compassion

Charles Darwin (2015). “The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality”, p.548, 谷月社

42 Copy quote
It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist and an evolutionist. ... I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.

Charles Darwin

Atheist, Men, Doubt

"Darwin's complex loss of faith" by Nick Spencer, www.theguardian.com. September 17, 2009.

21 Copy quote
Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music.

Charles Darwin

Nice, Book, Fire

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.219, NYU Press

22 Copy quote
How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Children, Innocence

Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.171, Courier Corporation

9 Copy quote
Man, wonderful man, must collapse, into nature's cauldron, he is no deity, he is no exception.

Charles Darwin

Men, Deities, Wonderful

17 Copy quote
Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than humans would at first suppose.

Charles Darwin

Important, World, Firsts

6 Copy quote
Music was known and understood before words were spoken.

Charles Darwin

Understood, Known

6 Copy quote
The most energetic workers I have encountered in my world travels are the vegetarian miners of Chile.

Charles Darwin

Vegetarianism, World, Vegan

11 Copy quote
The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Essence, Intuition

Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man: the Evolution”, p.113, VM eBooks

13 Copy quote
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

32 Copy quote
Nothing before had ever made me thoroughly realise, though I had read various scientific books, that science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them.

Charles Darwin

Book, Science, Law

Charles Darwin Ch. 2 by Francis Darwin

12 Copy quote
Wherever the European has trod, death seems to pursue the aboriginal.

Charles Darwin

Aboriginal, Pursue

"A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World: the Evolution".

18 Copy quote
Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Sympathy, Animal

Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.145, Diversion Books

18 Copy quote
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

12 Copy quote
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Charles Darwin

Beautiful, Simple, Cycling

On the Origin of Species ch. 14 (1859)

64 Copy quote
... 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.

8 Copy quote
...I believe there exists, & I feel within me, an instinct for the truth, or knowledge or discovery, of something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue, & that our having such an instinct is reason enough for scientific researches without any practical results ever ensuing from them.

Charles Darwin

Believe, Knowledge, Science

Charles Darwin, Frederick Burkhardt, Sydney Smith (1985). “The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1847-1850”, p.128, Cambridge University Press

11 Copy quote
Nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in a distant country.

Charles Darwin

Country, Science, Journey

Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.862, Delphi Classics

9 Copy quote
As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.

Charles Darwin

Perfection, Progress, Natural

Charles Darwin (1875). “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.428

16 Copy quote
Consequently, if my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long as, or probably far longer than, the whole interval from the Silurian age to the present day; and that during these vast, yet quite unknown, periods of time, the world swarmed with living creatures. To the question why we do not find records of these vast primordial periods, I can give no satisfactory answer.

Charles Darwin

Giving, Long, Age

Charles Darwin (1866). “On the origin of species ... A facsimile of the first edition, with an introduction by Ernst Mayr. With a portrait and a bibliography”, p.370

11 Copy quote
I am dying by inches, from not having any body to talk to about insects.

Charles Darwin

Dying, Body, Inches

Charles Darwin, Frederick Burkhardt (1998). “Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection, 1825-1859”, p.6, Cambridge University Press

7 Copy quote
It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction.

Charles Darwin

Light, Origin Of Life, Essence

Charles Darwin (2003). “The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition”, p.452, Penguin

11 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Alfred Russel Wallace

Albert Einstein

Galileo Galilei

Karl Marx

Charles Dickens

Charles Darwin

Follow

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

Popular Topics