A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen-this… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe been developed from a mind as… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related group of birds, one might really fancy that from an… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made of this question (the origin of the species) by patiently… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker... the social instincts, - the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Extinction has only separated groups: it has by no means made them; for if every form which has ever lived on this… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, I can entertain no doubt, after the most deliberate study and dispassionate judgment… — 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
But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“I fully agree with all that you say on the advantages of H. Spencer's excellent expression of 'the survival of the fittest.'… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“I am fully convinced that species are not immutable; but that those belonging to what are called the same genera are lineal… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things. As far as I can conjecture the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Natural selection acts only by the preservation and accumulation of small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being; and as modern… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“It has already been stated that various parts in the same individual, which are exactly alike during an early embryonic period, become… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle… — 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
