About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some… — 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
The theory which I would offer, is simply, that as the land with the attached reefs subsides very gradually from the action… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject… — 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
The man that created the theory of evolution by natural selection was thrown out by his Dad because he wanted him to… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties,… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Consequently, if my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of Natural Selection, if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent. — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
I worked on true Baconian principles, and without any theory collected facts. — 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
