There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I look at the natural geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept and written in a changing dialect; of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
In however complex a manner this feeling may have originated, as it is one of high importance to all those animals which… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Consequently, if my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
At last gleams of light have come, and I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I fully agree with all that you say on the advantages of Spencer's excellent expression of 'the survival of the fittest.' This,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The several difficulties here discussed, namely our not finding in the successive formations infinitely numerous transitional links between the many species which… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Thus, as I believe, natural selection will tend in the long run to reduce any part of the organisation, as soon as… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The more I study nature, the more I become impressed with ever-increasing force with the conclusion, that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is really laughable to see what different ideas are prominent in various naturalists' minds, when they speak of 'species'; in some,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form. — Charles Darwin Copy Share
So great is the economy of nature, that most flowers which are fertilised by crepuscular or nocturnal insects emit their odour chiefly or exclusively… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone. — Charles Darwin Copy Share
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
If worms have the power of acquiring some notion, however rude, of the shape of an object and over their burrows, as seems the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
Formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle, when I could take only… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
May we not suspect that the vague but very real fears of children, which are quite independent of experience, are the inherited effects of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
“Darwin, landing in Brazil in 1832, had a similar reaction, colored by his reading of his predecessor." Humboldt's glorious descriptions are & will for… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
“To admit that species generally become rare before they become extinct—to feel no surprise at the comparative rarity of one species with another, and… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree — Charles Darwin Copy Share
It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
