Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin Quotes

Naturalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenScienceNatural SelectionSpeciesOrigin Of SpeciesEvolutionIfsAnimalHas BeensNaturalMindMayInspirationalAtheismSelectionFactsBelieveWorldSeemsShould

Famous Charles Darwin Quotes

“Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future.”

MenGivingMayStillsFactsFeelingsDestinyPrideEvolutionHigherScalesSummitRisenExertionOrigin Of Man
Book:The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality
Create image

“After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject.”

WayWholeFactsLightMightAnimalSubjectsExampleReturnEnglandPlantFollowingThrownBoresVariationCollectingGeology
Book:Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution
Create image

“The moral faculties are generally esteemed, and with justice, as of higher value than the intellectual powers. But we should always bear in mind that the activity of the mind in vividly recalling past impressions is one of the fundamental though secondary bases of conscience. This fact affords the strongest argument for educating and stimulating in all possible ways the intellectual faculties of every human being.”

WayShouldMindHumansFactsPastValuesJusticeHuman BeingsMoralBearsHigherActivityIntellectualConscienceArgumentBasesFundamentalsImpressionFacultyStrongestNatural Selection
Book:The Descent of Man
Create image

“Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous small details of habits, tastes and dispositions between two or more domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument that all are descended from a common progenitor who was thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed under the same species. The same argument may be applied with much force to the races of man.”

MenShouldMayTwoFactsUseFormForceNaturalCommonRaceHabitTasteArgumentSpeciesDetailsAgreementDispositionNaturalistSmall DetailsNatural Forms
Book:The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Create image

“Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject my theory.”

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

“The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions; but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed, and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.”

MenWorldInspirationalMayLongStillsImportantFactsAnimalExistenceLandCreaturesGardenHistoricalAncientValuableInventionOrganizedWorld HistoryDoubted
Book:Darwinism Stated by Darwin Himself: Characteristic Passages from the Writings of Charles Darwin
Create image

“My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain that alone on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine would not, I suppose, have thus suffered, and if I had to live my life over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept alive through use.”

IfsMenShouldMindKindHas BeensMadeFactsUseSeemsLawScienceBrainAliveWeekMinesDependsHigherTasteShould HaveMachinesCollectionsBiographiesLiving My LifeOrganisedAtrophy
Book:The life and letters of Charles Darwin...ed. by his son, Francis Darwin. 2 v
Create image

“For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.”

WellsFactsSidesDecisionResultsFairsArgumentOppositesConclusionDecision MakingVolumeBoth SidesOrigin Of Species
Book:The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species
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