Formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle, when I could… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in a distant country. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
During my second year at Edinburgh [1826-27] I attended Jameson's lectures on Geology and Zoology, but they were incredible dull. The sole… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The Times is getting more detestable (but that is too weak word) than ever. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
...I believe there exists, & I feel within me, an instinct for the truth, or knowledge or discovery, of something of the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career;… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
A surprising number [of novels] have been read aloud to me, and I like all if moderately good, and if they do… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
To my deep mortification my father once said to me, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. — 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 Image
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 Image
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image