I am a firm believer, that without speculation there is no good and original observation. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in a distant country. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war lurking just below the serene facade of nature.” — 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
The Times is getting more detestable (but that is too weak word) than ever. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
During my second year at Edinburgh [1826-27] I attended Jameson's lectures on Geology and Zoology, but they were incredible dull. The sole… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brain... & therefore that when seeing a thing never seen… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things; and a most perplexing problem it is.… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
At no time am I a quick thinker or writer: whatever I have done in science has solely been by long pondering,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in its… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think,… — 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
Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval [tropical] forests, ... temples filled with… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage ... will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Your words have come true with a vengeance that I shd [should] be forestalled ... I never saw a more striking coincidence.… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I find in the domestic duck that the bones of the wing weigh less and the bones of the leg more, in… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I am not very skeptical... a good deal of skepticism in a scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“ Humboldt's glorious descriptions are & will for ever be unparalleled: but even he with his dark blue skies & the rare… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the… — 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 I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design… — 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
I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
If every one were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone. — 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
![“During my second year at Edinburgh [1826-27] I attended Jameson's lectures on Geology and Zoology, but they were incredible dull. The sole effect they produced on me was the determination never as long as I lived to read a book on Geology.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/42c/charles-darwin-507_biographies_during-my-second-year-at-edinburgh-1826_1350666.jpg)
![“Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval [tropical] forests, ... temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature. No one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b7b/charles-darwin-507_body_among-the-scenes-which-are-deeply-impres_2214332.jpg)
![“Your words have come true with a vengeance that I shd [should] be forestalled ... I never saw a more striking coincidence. If Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short abstract! Even his terms now stand as Heads of my Chapters.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/255/charles-darwin-507_abstract_your-words-have-come-true-with-a-vengean_2253853.jpg)
![“[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science. No one or a dozen other books influenced me nearly so much as these two. I copied out from Humboldt long passages about Teneriffe and read them aloud on one…” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/909/charles-darwin-507_add_herschel-and-humboldt-stirred-up-in-me-a_2886288.jpg)
![“[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6d5/charles-darwin-507_admiration_alexander-von-humboldt-was-the-greatest_3141935.jpg)
![“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 flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/958/charles-darwin-507_bounds_i-am-quite-conscious-that-my-speculation_35382.jpg)
