Natural selection Quotes by Charles Darwin

Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved

— Charles Darwin

A republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.

— Charles Darwin

Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

— Charles Darwin

Sympathy will have been increased through natural selection

— Charles Darwin

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

— Charles Darwin

“It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war lurking just below the serene facade of nature.”

— Charles Darwin

“I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.”

— Charles Darwin

Disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but at last it was complete.

— Charles Darwin

I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of Natural Selection, if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent.

— Charles Darwin

What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the…

— Charles Darwin

As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress…

— Charles Darwin

Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, ... I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not…

— Charles Darwin

Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions.

— Charles Darwin

Natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight successive favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only…

— Charles Darwin

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

— Charles Darwin

From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production…

— Charles Darwin

But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and…

— Charles Darwin

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

— Charles Darwin

The moral faculties are generally esteemed, and with justice, as of higher value than the intellectual powers. But we should always bear…

— Charles Darwin

Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable…

— Charles Darwin

That there is much suffering in the world no one disputes. Which is more likely, that pain and evil are the result…

— Charles Darwin

“Natural selection acts only by the preservation and accumulation of small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being; and as modern…

— Charles Darwin

On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non…

— Charles Darwin

This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how…

— Charles Darwin

“Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, I can entertain no doubt, after the most deliberate study and dispassionate judgment…

— Charles Darwin

I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilization than you seem inclined to…

— Charles Darwin

I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is…

— Charles Darwin

I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who…

— Charles Darwin

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

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of…

— Charles Darwin

“I will here give a brief sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of Species. Until recently the great majority…

— Charles Darwin

“With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health.…

— Charles Darwin

The man that created the theory of evolution by natural selection was thrown out by his Dad because he wanted him to…

— Charles Darwin

The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.

— Charles Darwin

It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an…

— Charles Darwin

Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.

— Charles Darwin

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

— Charles Darwin

With highly civilised nations continued progress depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; for such nations do not supplant and exterminate…

— Charles Darwin

I think it can be shown that there is such an unerring power at work in Natural Selection, which selects exclusively for…

— Charles Darwin

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

— Charles Darwin