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Life Quotes by Charles Darwin

63 Life quotes by Charles Darwin

All Life quotes Charles Darwin’s page

A line that calls love for all living creatures the most noble attribute of man puts compassion at the center. Other verses describe natural selection as a constant test that keeps only the useful variations, and they remind us that our knowledge is tiny compared to the world. The writer also compares new buds growing and stronger ones, showing life’s endless renewal.

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Life is nearly over with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing.

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Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life

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A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life

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The age-old and noble thought of 'I will lay down my life to save another,' is nothing more than cowardice.

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“And thus, the forms of life throughout the universe become divided into groups subordinate to groups.”

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We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

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There is a grandeur in this view of life, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful are being evolved

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If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to…

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Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have…

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A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth,…

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Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an…

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“Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of…

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It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist and an evolutionist. ... I have never…

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I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence.…

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The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen-this…

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It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin…

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How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his time! and consequently how poor will his products be, compared…

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The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career;…

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Consequently, if my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long…

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How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor…

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... if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being perserved…

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The more I study Nature, the more I become impressed with ever-increasing force that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations slowly acquired through…

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Each organic being is striving to increase in a geometrical ratio . . . each at some period of its life, during…

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“more commonly but not exclusively to the like sex. It is a fact of some importance to us, that peculiarities appearing in…

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“We do not steadily bear in mind how profoundly ignorant we are of the conditions of existence of every animal; nor do…

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Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having…

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The more I study nature, the more I become impressed with ever-increasing force with the conclusion, that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations…

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“But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to…

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“The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree.I believe this simile largely…

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The survival or preservation of certain favoured words in the struggle for existence is natural selection.

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Much love much trial, but what an utter desert is life without love.

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The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

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It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter.

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As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.

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On your life, underestimating the proclivities of finches is likely to lead to great internal hemorrhaging.

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The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief…

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...one doubts existence of free will [because] every action determined by heredity, constitution, example of others or teaching of others." "This view…

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“It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin…

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... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which…

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For myself," he wrote, "I do not believe in any revelation. As for a future life, every man must judge for himself…

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More by Charles Darwin

The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form.

So great is the economy of nature, that most flowers which are fertilised by crepuscular or nocturnal insects emit their odour chiefly or exclusively…

I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.

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…

If worms have the power of acquiring some notion, however rude, of the shape of an object and over their burrows, as seems the…

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to…

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…

May we not suspect that the vague but very real fears of children, which are quite independent of experience, are the inherited effects of…

It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is…

“Darwin, landing in Brazil in 1832, had a similar reaction, colored by his reading of his predecessor." Humboldt's glorious descriptions are & will for…

...all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it.

“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…

To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree

It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects…