History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
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
It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public;… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The moral faculties are generally esteemed, and with justice, as of higher value than the intellectual powers. But we should always bear… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“[Reason tells me of the] extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capability… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Daily it is forced home on the mind of the biologist that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
So in regard to mental qualities, their transmission is manifest in our dogs, horses and other domestic animals. Besides special tastes and… — 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
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
I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence.… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties...The difference in mind between man and the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to… — 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
“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
Nothing could have been worse for the development of my mind than Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Let it also be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I am not very sceptical, — a frame of mind which I believe to be injurious to the progress of science. A… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume under the form of an abstract, I… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of… — 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
...he who remains passive when over-whelmed with grief loses his best chance of recovering his elasticity of mind. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an… — 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
