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Charles Darwin Quotes

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Famous Charles Darwin Quotes

“I fully agree with all that you say on the advantages of H. Spencer's excellent expression of 'the survival of the fittest.' This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your letter. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words, natural selection. (Letter to A. R. Wallace July 1866)”

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Author:Charles Darwin
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“With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed. The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, if so urged by hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with a certain and great present evil. Hence we must bear without complaining the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely the weaker and inferior members of society not marrying so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased, though this is more to be hoped for than expected, by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage.”

Natural SelectionEugenicsDarwinismSurvival Of The FittestPlanned ParenthoodPopulation ControlSterilizationSocial DarwinismSterilisationArtificial Selection
Book:The Descent of Man
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“To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
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“As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
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“What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern?”

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Book:The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
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“I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection. But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.”

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Author:Charles Darwin
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“On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non facit saltum.” This canon, if we look only to the present inhabitants of the world, is not strictly correct, but if we include all those of past times, it must by my theory be strictly true.”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
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“... if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being perserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offsping similarly characterized. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection.”

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Book:The Works of Charles Darwin: On the origin of species 1959
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“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.”

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Book:The Descent of Man
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“As some of the lowest organisms, in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this special sensibility.”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
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“This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of Character.”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
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“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

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Author:Charles Darwin
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“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.”

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Author:Charles Darwin
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“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.”

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Book:Autobiographies
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“As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.”

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Book:The Descent of Man: the Evolution
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“I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)
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“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.”

IfsHas BeensI CanBreakCasesTheoryEvolutionSpeciesComplexesOrgansBreaking DownNatural SelectionDarwinismCreationismModificationTheory Of EvolutionOrigin Of SpeciesCreation ScienceCreation And EvolutionEvolution Of ManOrigin Of Man
Book:On the Origin of Species
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“I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilization than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risk the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilised so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.”

WorldHas BeensIdeasDoneShowsSeemsRememberFightingNationsNaturalNumbersRaceExistenceStruggleProgressRiskCenturyHigherCivilizationEuropeRidiculousEndlessRanCivilizedBeatenOverwhelmedSelectionHollowNatural SelectionTurkishDarwinismCivilisedCaucasianStruggle For ExistenceBeing Overwhelmed
Book:Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution
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“As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates; so that we need feel no surprise at the inhabitants of any one country, although on the ordinary view supposed to have been specially created and adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted by the naturalised productions from another land.”

NeedsFeelsHas BeensCountryNaturalViewsLandDegreesOrdinaryPerfectionRelationCompetitionSurpriseProductionsBeatenAssociatesSelectionAdaptationAdaptedNatural Selection
Book:On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection
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“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)
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“This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection and would be left a fluctuating element.”

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Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
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“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.”

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Author:Charles Darwin
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“That there is much suffering in the world no one disputes. Which is more likely, that pain and evil are the result of an all-powerful and good God, or the product of uncaring natural forces? The presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.”

WorldWellsHas BeensPainReligionSufferingEvilForceNaturalResultsViewsPowerfulAtheismProductsAgreeSelectionDisputesVariationNatural SelectionGood GodUncaring
Author:Charles Darwin
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“When it was first said that the sun stood still and world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei [the voice of the people is the voice of God], as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science.”

PeopleKnowsWorldFirstsSaidStillsEyeVoiceCommonSunAtheismMankindSpeciesRoundsPhilosopherPositive AtheismDoctrineCommon SenseTrustedNatural SelectionAgnosticismOld SayingVoice Of GodOrigin Of SpeciesVox Populi
Author:Charles Darwin
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“But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.”

WorldShouldPlaySeemsWishSidesToo MuchAtheismDesignEvolutionEvidenceCatMiserySpeciesPositive AtheismMiceNatural SelectionAgnosticismOmnipotentBeneficence
Book:Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution
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“I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower from, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance.”

MenMindShowsLawIndividualNaturalChanceResultsAcceptingAtheismEventsBirthOrdinaryBlindSpeciesBoundsRefusePositive AtheismConclusionSelectionSequenceVariationNatural SelectionAgnosticismReproductionDescentOrigin Of ManSequence Of Events
Book:The Descent of Man and Seletion in Relation to Sex
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“I fully agree with all that you say on the advantages of Spencer's excellent expression of 'the survival of the fittest.' This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your letter. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words, natural selection.”

RealUsedReadingTermNaturalExpressionSurvivalAdvantageLettersAgreeExcellentSelectionGoverningVerbsObjectionsNatural SelectionSurvival Of The Fittest
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)
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“Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationship to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring.”

IfsIndividualCausesStruggleDegreesSpeciesComplexesPreservationProfitableVariationNatural SelectionOffspringProceedingOwingOrigin Of SpeciesComplex Relationships
Author:Charles Darwin
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“As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.”

IfsSometimesFormIndividualStrongBornChanceExistencePrinciplesStruggleConditionsSpeciesComplexesVarietyInheritanceSurvivingProfitableVaryNatural SelectionSelectedRecurringOrigin Of SpeciesStruggle For Existence
Book:Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution
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“It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, wherever and whenever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life.”

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Book:The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 15: On the Origin of Species, 1859
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