To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
When it was first said that the sun stood still and world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related group of birds, one might really fancy that from an… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The formation of different languages and of distinct species and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but at last it was complete. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I am actually weary of telling people that I do not pretend to adduce [direct] evidence of one species changing into another,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
... not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Whoever is led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously expressing his conviction; for only thus can… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Not one change of species into another is on record ... we cannot prove that a single species has been changed. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I see no good reason why the views given this volume [The Origin of Species] should shock the religious feelings of any… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I have just finished my sketch of my species theory. If as I believe that my theory is true & if it… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Mere chance ... alone would never account for so habitual and large an amount of difference as that between varieties of the… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die - which variety or species shall increase… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It is really laughable to see what different ideas are prominent in various naturalists' minds, when they speak of 'species'; in some,… — 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
