Origin Of Species Quotes - Page 2

• Mere chance ... alone would never account for so habitual and large an amount of difference as that between varieties of the same species.

  Charles Darwin

  Differences, Chance, Accounts

  Charles Darwin (2010). “Evolutionary Writings: including the Autobiographies”, p.286, OUP Oxford

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• Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationship to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Variation, Owing

  On the Origin of Species ch. 3 (1859)

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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, Ifs

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Origin of Species: A Variorum Text”, p.321, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• 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

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• Each organic being is striving to increase in a geometrical ratio . . . each at some period of its life, during some season of the year, during each generation or at intervals, has to struggle for life and to suffer great destruction . . . The vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Years, Healthy

  Charles Darwin (2012). “The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the 'Beagle': Introduction by Richard Dawkins”, p.599, Everyman's Library

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• If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

  Charles Darwin

  Music, Mental Health, Week

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.25, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life!

  Charles Darwin

  Ignorance, Law, Profound

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.3445, Delphi Classics

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• 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

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• On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Views, Ordinary

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.5428, Delphi Classics

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• Great is the power of steady misrepresentation

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Misrepresentation, Natural Selection

  1859 The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

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• To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both."—Bacon: "Advancement of Learning".

  Charles Darwin

  Philosophy, Book, Science

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.2, Harvard University Press

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• 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

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• I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.

  Charles Darwin

  Religious, Science, Views

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.27, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Truth, New Relationship

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.11523, Delphi Classics

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• Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Light, Theory Of Evolution

  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.578

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• Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Good Nature, Species

  Charles Darwin, Duncan M. Porter, Frederick Burkhardt (2004). “The Correspondence of Charles Darwin:”, p.228, Cambridge University Press

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• Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

  Charles Darwin

  Natural Selection, Strongest, Dies

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.247, Broadview Press

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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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• 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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• A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." Charles Darwin

  Charles Darwin

  Facts, Sides, Argument

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• Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have found it so--than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Mind, Bears

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.62, Harvard 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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• But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.

  Charles Darwin

  Lying, Believe, Theory Of Evolution

  Charles Darwin (2012). “On the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle”, p.162, Graphic Arts Books

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• In fact, evolution became in a sense a scientific religion; almost all scientists have accepted it and many are prepared to "bend" their observations to fit in with it.

  Henry Lipson

  Facts, Creation Science, Evolution

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• To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree

  Charles Darwin

  Eye, Theory Of Evolution, Creation Science

  Charles Darwin (1861). “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.167

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