Natural Selection Quotes

• 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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  The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.

  Richard Dawkins

  Health, Theory Of Evolution, Inspire

  Richard Dawkins (2015). “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design”, p.300, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Let me lay my cards on the table. If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of even Newton or Einstein and everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law. It is not just a wonderful idea. It is a dangerous idea.

  Daniel Dennett

  Ideas, Space, Awards

  "Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life". Book by Daniel Dennett, 1995.

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• Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random.

  Richard Dawkins

  Selfish, Opposites, Society

  "The Blind Watchmaker". Book by Richard Dawkins, 1986.

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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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• From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, War, Animal

  On the Origin of Species ch. 14 (1859)

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• Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition.

  Daniel Dennett

  Ideas, People, Tradition

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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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• Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.

  Charles Darwin

  Humility, Animal, Slave

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.16, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.

  Charles Darwin

  Life, Men, Judging

  The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Religion (p. 277)

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• 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)

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• As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.

  Charles Darwin

  Strong, Struggle, Principles

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.9, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Atheist, Insightful

  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.124, NYU Press

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• I am quite sure that our views on evolution would be very different had biologists studied genetics and natural selection before and not after most of them were convinced that evolution had occurred.

  John B. S. Haldane

  Science, Views, Would Be

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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 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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• It is essential for genetic material to be able to make exact copies of itself; otherwise growth would produce disorder, life could not originate, and favourable forms would not be perpetuated by natural selection.

  Maurice Wilkins

  Life, Science, Growth

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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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• But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.

  Charles Darwin

  Cat, Play, Design

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.28, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Great is the power of steady misrepresentation

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Misrepresentation, Origin Of Species

  1859 The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

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• I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.

  Charles Darwin

  Family, Brother, Atheist

  Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley (1983). “Autobiographies”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.

  Charles Darwin

  Friendship, Wisdom, Men

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.24, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.

  Charles Darwin

  Motivational, Science, Theory Of Evolution

  "Got a problem? Our Evolutionary Agony Aunt can help" by Ian Sample, www.theguardian.com. December 2, 2009.

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• Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Clever, Favors, Evolution

  Barbara Ehrenreich (1990). “WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, Pantheon

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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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