Charles Darwin Quotes

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Quotes About Charles Darwin

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{On to contributions to evolutionary biology of 18th century French scientist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon}

He was not an evolutionary biologist, yet he was the father of evolutionism. He was the first person to discuss a large number of evolutionary problems, problems that before Buffon had not been raised by anybody.... he brought them to the attention of the scientific world.

Except for Aristotle and Darwin, no other student of organisms [whole animals and plants] has had as far-reaching an influence.

He brought the idea of evolution into the realm of science. He developed a concept of the "unity of type", a precursor of comparative anatomy. More than anyone else, he was responsible for the acceptance of a long-time scale for the history of the earth. He was one of the first to imply that you get inheritance from your parents, in a description based on similarities between elephants and mammoths. And yet, he hindered evolution by his frequent endorsement of the immutability of species. He provided a criterion of species, fertility among members of a species, that was thought impregnable. ~ Ernst W. Mayr
Charles Darwin quotes by Ernst W. Mayr
The season of love is that of battle. The roots of these fights run deep. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage ... will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it appears to me the doing what little we can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
We have really, that I know of, no philosophical basis for high and low. Moreover, the vegetable kingdom does not culminate, as the animal kingdom does. It is not a kingdom, but a common-wealth; a democracy, and therefore puzzling and unaccountable from the former point of view. ~ Asa Gray
Charles Darwin quotes by Asa Gray
Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
We don't want to be the conquistadors. We want to be Charles Darwin. ~ Lydia Millet
Charles Darwin quotes by Lydia Millet
I conclude that the musical notes and rhythms were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The Earthling figure who is most engaging to the Tralfamadorian mind, he says, is Charles Darwin - who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Charles Darwin quotes by Kurt Vonnegut
Let's find and remedy all our weaknesses before our enemies get a chance to say a word. That is what Charles Darwin did ... When Darwin completed the manuscript of his immortal book "The Origin Of Species" he realized that the publication of his revolutionary concept of creation would rock the intellectual and religious worlds. So he became his own critic and spent another 15 years checking his data, challenging his reasoning, and criticizing his conclusions. ~ Dale Carnegie
Charles Darwin quotes by Dale Carnegie
Only the fittest will survive. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
They are, in fact, Cheaters, luring men into the foaming waters of carnality without even the vaguest possibility of conception. What a delight, what a subversion of expectation. The healthiest and most womanly of women are in fact a rendition of Amazon queens, self-possessed and self-defined, women whose bodies have an enviable integrity and a fleshy, nonreplicative beauty that razzes Charles Darwin. The buck, the stud, the bull, stops here. ~ Natalie Angier
Charles Darwin quotes by Natalie Angier
I have ceased to think even of barnacles!' -Charles Darwin ~ Deborah Heiligman
Charles Darwin quotes by Deborah Heiligman
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Even the humblest mammal's strong sexual, parental, and social instincts give rise to 'do unto others as yourself' and 'love thy neighbor as thyself'. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities ... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The normal food of man is vegetable. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker ... the social instincts, - the prime principle of man's moral constitution - with the aid of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule, "As ye would that men should do to you; do ye to them likewise"; and this lies at the foundation of morality. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem to him the best ones ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The school as a means of education to me was simply a blank. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
If worms have the power of acquiring some notion, however rude, of the shape of an object and over their burrows, as seems the case, they deserve to be called intelligent; for they act in nearly the same manner as would man under similar circumstances. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favoured my upholding them under a different form in my 'Origin of Species. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The advantage which disciplined soldiers have over undisciplined hordes follows cheaply from the confidence which each man feels in his comrades. Charles Darwin ~ Jonathan Haidt
Charles Darwin quotes by Jonathan Haidt
Nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in a distant country. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
...Showing that they descend from common parents, and consequently must be ranked as varieties. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war lurking just below the serene facade of nature. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin wrote a famous book in 18 gibberish. And that book was an interesting book, cuz it was called "Monkey-Monkey-Monkey-Monkey-Monkey-Monkey-You" ~ Eddie Izzard
Charles Darwin quotes by Eddie Izzard
I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation, & therefore not in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I am not very skeptical ... a good deal of skepticism in a scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time, but I have met not a few men, who ... have often thus been deterred from experiments or observations which would have proven servicable. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Why is The Origin of Species such a great book? First of all, because it convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: it provides a vast and well-chosen body of evidence showing that existing animals and plants cannot have been separately created in their present forms, but must have evolved from earlier forms by slow transformation. And secondly, because the theory of natural selection, which the Origin so fully and so lucidly expounds, provides a mechanism by which such transformation could and would automatically be produced. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children, but no child has an instinctive tendency to bake, brew, or write. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Darwin himself said as much: 'If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.' Darwin could find no such case, and nor has anybody since Darwin's time, despite strenuous, indeed desperate, efforts. Many candidates for this holy grail of creationism have been proposed. None has stood up to analysis. ~ Richard Dawkins
Charles Darwin quotes by Richard Dawkins
A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The earthquake, however, must be to every one a most impressive event: the earth, considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet; and in seeing the laboured works of man in a moment overthrown, we feel the insignificance of his boasted power. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
It may be worth while to illustrate this view of classification, by taking the case of languages. If we possessed a perfect pedigree of mankind, a genealogical arrangement of the races of man would afford the best classification of the various languages now spoken throughout the world; and if all extinct languages, and all intermediate and slowly changing dialects, were to be included, such an arrangement would be the only possible one. Yet it might be that some ancient languages had altered very little and had given rise to few new languages, whilst others had altered much owing to the spreading, isolation, and state of civilisation of the several co-descended races, and had thus given rise to many new dialects and languages. The various degrees of difference between the languages of the same stock, would have to be expressed by groups subordinate to groups; but the proper or even the only possible arrangement would still be genealogical; and this would be strictly natural, as it would connect together all languages, extinct and recent, by the closest affinities, and would give the filiation and origin of each tongue. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Music was known and understood before words were spoken. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The more efficient causes of progress seem to consist of a good education during youth whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, embodied in the laws, customs and traditions of the nation, and enforced by public opinion. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
If any man wants to gain a good opinion of his fellow men, he ought to do what I am doing: pester them with letters. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Our faculties are more fitted to recognize the wonderful structure of a beetle than a Universe. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
The lives of those such as Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are plainly of interest in their own right, as well as for the light they shed on the way these great scientists worked. But are 'routine' scientists as fascinating as their science? Here I have my doubts. ~ Martin Rees
Charles Darwin quotes by Martin Rees
One doubts existence of free will [because] every action determined by heredity, constitution, example of others or teaching of others." "This view should teach one profound humility, one deserves no credit for anything ... nor ought one to blame others. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than John Locke. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Since all organisms vary, and all reproduce themselves in greater numbers than can survive, there must always be competition between variants; in other words, the principle of natural selection, too, is universally applicable. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not at all in agreement. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Smoking crack is a way for people who couldn't afford college to study the works of Charles Darwin. ~ P. J. O'Rourke
Charles Darwin quotes by P. J. O'Rourke
Ultimately a highly complex sentiment, having its first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled by reason, self-interest, and in later times by deep religious feelings, confirmed by instruction and habit, all combined, constitute our moral sense or conscience. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions. It is apparently unfelt by savages, except towards their pets. How little the old Romans knew of it is shewn by their abhorrent gladiatorial exhibitions. The very idea of humanity, as far as I could observe, was new to most of the Gauchos of the Pampas. This virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
What an extraordinary thing it is, Mr. Darwin seems to spend hours in cracking a horse-whip in his room, for I often hear the crack when I pass under his windows. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
When Charles Darwin was trying to decide whether he should propose to his cousin Emma Wedgwood, he got out a pencil and paper and weighed every possible consequence. In favor of marriage he listed children, companionship, and the 'charms of music and female chit-chat.' Against marriage he listed the 'terrible loss of time,' lack of freedom to go where he wished, the burden of visiting relatives, the expense and anxiety provoked by children, the concern that 'perhaps my wife won't like London,' and having less money to spend on books. Weighing one column against the other produced a narrow margin of victory, and at the bottom Darwin scrawled, 'Marry - Marry - Marry Q.E.D.' Quod erat demonstrandum, the mathematical sign-off that Darwin himself restated in English: 'It being proved necessary to Marry. ~ Brian Christian
Charles Darwin quotes by Brian Christian
If every one were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
This preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the plan of
creation or unity of design, etc., and to think that we give an explanation
when we only restate a fact. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
About 4,400 years ago 8 people stepped off Noah's ark. According to the United Nations Population Growth Statistics, the world's population grows at about .47% per year. That is the growth rate for all civilizations who kept records. Suppose you put $8.00 in the bank 4,400 years ago and received .47% a year. How much money would you have? What a coincidence! It would be about $7,000,000,000. That's kind of odd, because 4,400 years ago 8 people stepped off the ark and now we have about 7,000,000,000 people on planet earth. God's math works!
Compound interest is something we teach to seventh-graders. You don't have to be a professor to figure this out. A twelve-year-old can do the calculation. Ask any seventh-grader, the algebraic equation looks like this: A=P (1+r/n)t . . . where "A " is the ending amount (about 7,000,000,000 in this case), "P " is the beginning amount (8 in this case), "r " is the interest rate (.47% in this case), "n " is the number of compoundings a year (1 in this case), and "t " is the total number of years (4,400 in this case).
pg 11 ~ Michael Ben Zehabe
Charles Darwin quotes by Michael Ben Zehabe
At no time am I a quick thinker or writer: whatever I have done in science has solely been by long pondering, patience and industry. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly forsee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin himself had written a whole tome about the parallels between human and animal emotional expressions. ~ Frans De Waal
Charles Darwin quotes by Frans De Waal
Why should I have to hide the fact that I don't believe there's a supreme being? There's no proof of it. There's no harm in saying you're an atheist. It doesn't mean you treat people any differently. I live by the Golden Rule to do unto others, as you'd want to be treated.
I just simply don't believe in religion, and I don't believe necessarily that there's a supreme being that watches over all of us. I follow the teachings of George Carlin. George said he worshipped the sun. He was a fellow atheist. I'm in good company ... Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin. It's not like I'm not with good company and intelligent people. There have been some good, intelligent atheists who have lived in the world. ~ Jesse Ventura
Charles Darwin quotes by Jesse Ventura
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
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Of the contributions made during the essayist period three call for notice: Weismann deserves mention for his useful work in asking for the proof that "acquired characters" or, to speak more precisely, parental experience can really be transmitted to the offspring. The ocurrence of progressive adaptation by transmission of effects of use had seemed so natural to Darwin and his contemporaries that no proof of the physiological reality of the henomenon was thought necessary. Weismann's challenge revealed the utter inadequacy of the evidence on which the beliefs were based. They are doubtless isolated observations which may be interpreted as favouring the belief in these transmissions, but such meagre indications as exist are by general consent admitted to be too slight to be of much assistance in the attempt to understand how the more complex adaptive mechanisms arose. ~ William Bateson
Charles Darwin quotes by William Bateson
With highly civilised nations continued progress depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; for such nations do not supplant and exterminate one another as do savage tribes. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
It is like confessing to a murder. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
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
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
My geological examination of the country generally created a good deal of surprise amongst the Chilenos: it was long before they could be convinced that I was not hunting for mines. This was sometimes troublesome: I found the most ready way of explaining my employment, was to ask them how it was that they themselves were not curious concerning earthquakes and volcanos? – why some springs were hot and others cold? – why there were mountains in Chile, and not a hill in La Plata? These bare questions at once satisfied and silenced the greater number; some, however (like a few in England who are a century behind hand), thought that all such inquiries were useless and impious; and that it was quite sufficient that God had thus made the mountains. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Our descent, then, is the origin of our evil passions!! The devil under form of Baboon is our grandfather. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
So in regard to mental qualities, their transmission is manifest in our dogs, horses and other domestic animals. Besides special tastes and habits, general intelligence, courage, bad and good tempers. etc., are certainly transmitted. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Extinction has only separated groups: it has by no means made them; for if every form which has ever lived on this earth were suddenly to reappear, though it would be quite impossible to give definitions by which each group could be distinguished from other groups, as all would blend together by steps as fine as those between the finest existing varieties, nevertheless a natural classification, or at least a natural arrangement, would be possible. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Quite recently the human descent theory has been stigmatized as the 'gorilla theory of human ancestry.' All this despite the fact that Darwin himself, in the days when not a single bit of evidence regarding the fossil ancestors of man was recognized, distinctly stated that none of the known anthropoid apes, much less any of the known monkeys, should be considered in any way as ancestral to the human stock. ~ Henry Fairfield Osborn
Charles Darwin quotes by Henry Fairfield Osborn
I have just finished my sketch of my species theory. If as I believe that my theory is true & if it be accepted even by one competent judge, it will be a considerable step in science. I therefore write this, in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn & last request, which I am sure you will consider the same as if legally entered in my will, that you will devote 400£ to its publication & further will yourself, or through Hensleigh [Wedgwood], take trouble in promoting it. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
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
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
It is impossible to concieve of this immense and wonderful universe as the result of blind chance or necessity. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I have been scientifically studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so-called,) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result profoundly humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals. ~ Mark Twain
Charles Darwin quotes by Mark Twain
We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention and curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
As some of the lowest organisms, in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this special sensibility. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte at three years old with wonderfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice at all, he might truly have been said to have done so instinctively. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Very few, even among those who have taken the keenest interest in the progress of the revolution in natural knowledge set afoot by the publication of the 'Origin of Species'; and who have watched, not without astonishment, the rapid and complete change which has been effected both inside and outside the boundaries of the scientific world in the attitude of men's minds towards the doctrines which are expounded in that great work, can have been prepared for the extraordinary manifestation of affectionate regard for the man, and of profound reverence for the philosopher, which followed the announcement, on Thursday last, of the death of Mr Darwin. ~ Thomas Henry Huxley
Charles Darwin quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley
Even when we are quite alone, how often do we think with pleasure or pain of what others think of us - of their imagined approbation or disapprobation. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as 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 the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Over the course of two years, from June 2004 to June 2006, two separate deaths did nothing to ease my overall anxiety. Steve's beloved Staffordshire bull terrier Sui died of cancer in June 2004. He had set up his swag and slept beside her all night, talking to her, recalling old times in the bush catching crocodiles, and comforting her.
Losing Sui brought up memories of losing Chilli a decade and a half earlier. "I am not getting another dog," Steve said. "It is just too painful."
Wes, the most loyal friend anyone could have, was there for Steve while Sui passed from this life to the next. Wes shared in Steve's grief. They had known Sui longer than Steve and I had been together.
Two years after Sui's death, in June 2006, we lost Harriet. At 175, Harriet was the oldest living creature on earth. She had met Charles Darwin and sailed on the Beagle. She was our link to the past at the zoo, and beyond that, our link to the great scientist himself. She was a living museum and an icon of our zoo.
The kids and I were headed to Fraser Island, along the southern coast of Queensland, with Joy, Steve's sister, and her husband, Frank, our zoo manager, when I heard the news. An ultrasound had confirmed that Harriet had suffered a massive heart attack.
Steve called me. "I think you'd better come home."
"I should talk to the kids about this," I said.
Bindi was horrified. "How long is Harriet going to live?" she asked.
"Maybe hours, maybe days, but not ~ Terri Irwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Terri Irwin
July 24th, 1833. - The Beagle sailed from Maldonado, and on August the 3rd she arrived off the mouth of the Rio Negro. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I can entertain no doubt, after the most deliberate study and dispassionate judgment of which I am capable, that the view which most naturalists entertain, and which I formerly entertained - namely, that each species has been independently created - is erroneous. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I see no good reason why the views given this volume [The Origin of Species] should shock the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how transient such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever made by man, namely, the law of attraction of gravity, was also attacked by Leibnitz, 'as subversive of natural, and inferentially of revealed, religion.' ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
By the age of 11, I was no longer going to Sunday Mass, and going on birdwatching walks with my father. So early on, I heard of Charles Darwin. I guess, you know, he was the big hero. And, you know, you understand life as it now exists through evolution. ~ James D. Watson
Charles Darwin quotes by James D. Watson
This new consensus seemed so compelling that Ernst Mayr, the dean of modern Darwinians, opened the ashcan of history for a deposit of Geoffrey's ideas about anatomical unity. ~ Stephen Jay Gould
Charles Darwin quotes by Stephen Jay Gould
The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
Conscience looks backwards and judges past actions, inducing that kind of dissatisfaction, which if weak we call regret, and if severe remorse. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I cannot see ... evidence of design and beneficence ... There seems to me too much misery in the world. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
According to Teleology, each organism is like a rifle bullet fired straight at a mark; according to Darwin, organisms are like grapeshot of which one hits something and the rest fall wide.
For the teleologist an organism exists because it was made for the conditions in which it is found; for the Darwinian an organism exists because, out of many of its kind, it is the only one which has been able to persist in the conditions in which it is found.
Teleology implies that the organs of every organism are perfect and cannot be improved; the Darwinian theory simply affirms that they work well enough to enable the organism to hold its own against such competitors as it has met with, but admits the possibility of indefinite improvement. ~ Thomas Henry Huxley
Charles Darwin quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley
It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
People complain of the unequal distribution of wealth [but it is a far greater] injustice that any one man should have the power to write so many brilliant essays ... There is no one who writes like [Thomas Huxley]. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
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
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
But I am very poorly today & very stupid & I hate everybody & everything. One lives only to make blunders. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
I expect to think that I would rather be author of your book [The Origin of Species] than of any other on Nat. Hist. Science.
[Letter to Charles Darwin 12 Dec 1859] ~ Joseph Dalton Hooker
Charles Darwin quotes by Joseph Dalton Hooker
A pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some dogs in a very peculiar manner, namely, by grinning. ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin quotes by Charles Darwin
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