...I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on… — 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
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
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
“The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
It has sometimes been said that the success of the Origin proved "that the subject was in the air," or "that men's… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how… — 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
The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form. — Charles Darwin Copy Share
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
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone. — Charles Darwin Copy Share
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
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
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
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
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
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
“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
“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… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
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
It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects… — Charles Darwin Copy Share
