Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin Quotes

Naturalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenScienceNatural SelectionSpeciesOrigin Of SpeciesEvolutionIfsAnimalHas BeensNaturalMindMayInspirationalAtheismSelectionFactsBelieveWorldSeemsShould

Famous Charles Darwin Quotes

“I have just finished my sketch of my species theory. If as I believe that my theory is true & if it be accepted even by one competent judge, it will be a considerable step in science. I therefore write this, in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn & last request, which I am sure you will consider the same as if legally entered in my will, that you will devote 400£ to its publication & further will yourself, or through Hensleigh [Wedgwood], take trouble in promoting it.”

IfsWritingBelieveBookLastsScienceI BelieveStepsCasesTroubleJudgingTheorySpeciesFinishedAcceptedPromotingRequestSolemnCompetentPublicationSudden Death
Book:On Evolution: The Development of the Theory of Natural Selection
Create image

“Man is more courageous, pugnacious, and energetic than woman, and has a more inventive genius. His brain is absolutely larger, but whether relatively to the larger size of his body, in comparison with that of woman, has not, I believe been fully ascertained. In woman the face is rounder; the jaws and the base of the skull smaller; the outlines of her body rounder, in parts more prominent; and her pelvis is broader than in man; but this latter character may perhaps be considered rather as a primary than a secondary sexual character. She comes to maturity at an earlier age than man.”

MenBelieveMayCharacterBodyAgeFacesI BelieveWomenBrainGeniusPrimariesMaturityLatterCourageousSkullsOutlinesEnergeticProminent
Author:Charles Darwin
Create image

“To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.”

ShouldBelieveHas BeensDifferentLightSeemsEyeScienceImaginationNaturalPerfectFocusMinesTheoryAmountDegreesHighestDifficultyDistanceSpeciesComplexesAbsurdSelectionCould Have BeenNatural SelectionCorrectionsAdmittingSubversiveDarwinismMiningAdjustingAberrationOrigin Of SpeciesHuman EyesThese EyesCreationistNatural Forms
Author:Charles Darwin
Create image

“I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.”

IfsMenBelieveI CanShowsSeemsReligionFatherLanguageWishFamilyChristianityAtheismBrotherOughtMy FriendsAtheistDoctrineBeing TrueNatural SelectionTheismTheistReligious PhilosophyChristian AtheistChristian DoctrinePlain Language
Book:Autobiographies
Create image

“But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.”

BelieveDoeLyingI BelieveProcessNumbersRecordsSeriousTheoryEvolutionObviousExtremesI Believe InScalesEnormousChainsVarietyExplanationProportionLinksImperfectionFossilsFormationObjectionsGeologyDarwinismTheory Of EvolutionOrigin Of SpeciesExterminationPaleontology
Book:On the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle
Create image

“I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.”

MenFeelsMindBelieveHumansWellsLooksWholeMightLawScienceUniverseBeliefLeftForceChanceResultsViewsWonderfulSubjectsDogProfoundNotionDetailsWork OutIntellectBrutesNewtonNatural SelectionNature Of ManBrute Force
Author:Charles Darwin
Create image

“It is really laughable to see what different ideas are prominent in various naturalists' minds, when they speak of 'species'; in some, resemblance is everything and descent of little weight-in some, resemblance seems to go for nothing, and Creation the reigning idea-in some, descent is the key,-in some, sterility an unfailing test, with others it is not worth a farthing. It all comes, I believe, from trying to define the undefinable.”

TryingMindBelieveLittlesIdeasDifferentSeemsScienceSpeakI BelieveCreationKeysTestsWeightSpeciesVariousDescentResemblanceProminentNaturalistDifferent IdeasLaughableResemblance Is
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)
Create image

“...I believe there exists, & I feel within me, an instinct for the truth, or knowledge or discovery, of something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue, & that our having such an instinct is reason enough for scientific researches without any practical results ever ensuing from them.”

FeelsBelieveReasonEnoughScienceI BelieveResultsKnowledgeVirtueResearchDiscoveryInstinctPracticalsBiographiesScientific ResearchScientific Discovery
Book:The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1847-1850
Create image

“I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage ... will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it appears to me the doing what little we can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue.”

KnowsBelieveLittlesScienceNaturalKnowledgeObjectsProduceIncreasePursueRespectableVoyagesLikelihoodTime SpentNatural HistoryTrust And Believe
Book:Charles Darwin: His Life in an Autobiographical Chapter and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters
Create image

“The assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent deity.”

MenShouldBelieveLittlesPersonsHas BeensUsedSpiritReligionBeliefPowerfulExistenceAtheismArgumentCompelledDeitiesBelief In God
Book:The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality
Create image

“A celebrated author and divine has written to me that he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that he created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of his laws.”

BelieveSelfActionFormLawWrittenAtheismCreationDivineDevelopmentCapableOriginalsNobleConceptionVoidSelf DevelopmentDeitiesAgnosticism
Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Create image

“As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.”

IfsGivingBelieveHas BeensEarthBeautifulI BelieveSidesGrowthGenerationsTreeBrokenSurfaceBranchesBudVigorousTree Of LifeOrigin Of SpeciesRamifications
Book:Evolutionary Writings: including the Autobiographies
Create image

“Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appearance of new beings on this earth.”

FirstsBelieveStillsFactsSeemsEarthSpaceSeeingMysteryPeriodsOceanAppearanceSpreadBoundariesHeightStreamsTime And SpaceUnbrokenLavaCraters
Book:Voyage of the Beagle
Create image

“I believe we were all glad to leave New Zealand. It is not a pleasant place. Amongst the natives there is absent that charming simplicity .... and the greater part of the English are the very refuse of society.”

BelieveI BelieveGreaterSimplicityRefuseGladPleasantCharmingAbsentNew Zealand
Book:Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle: Between the Years 1826 and 1836 ...
Create image