It is certain that there may be extraordinary mental activity with an extremely small absolute mass of nervous matter: thus the wonderfully… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Even the humblest mammal's strong sexual, parental, and social instincts give rise to 'do unto others as yourself' and 'love thy neighbor… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte at three years old with wonderfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable—namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental… — 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
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
Ultimately a highly complex sentiment, having its first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another...we consider those, where the intellectual faculties most developed as the… — 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
