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Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin Quotes

Naturalist

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Famous Charles Darwin Quotes

“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
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“In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.”

MenMindImportantLightSciencePsychologyFieldsFutureResearchCapacityFoundationThrownEvolutionary PsychologyOrigin Of SpeciesMental PowerOpen FieldsOrigin Of Man
Book:On the Origin of Species
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“It has sometimes been said that the success of the Origin proved "that the subject was in the air," or "that men's minds were prepared for it." I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species.”

ThinkingMenMindSaidSometimesSuccessScienceDoubtHappenedAirSubjectsPreparedSpeciesPreparationPermanenceNaturalist
Book:On the Origin of Species
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“Nothing could have been worse for the development of my mind than Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being taught, except a little ancient geography and history. The school as a means of education to me was simply a blank. During my whole life I have been singularly incapable of mastering any language. Especial attention was paid to versemaking, and this I could never do well. I had many friends, and got together a good collection of old verses, which by patching together, sometimes aided by other boys, I could work into any subject.”

MindWellsMeanLittlesHas BeensSometimesWholeSchoolTogetherScienceLanguageAttentionBoysHistoryTeachingSubjectsTaughtDevelopmentPaidAncientWhole LifeCollectionsVersesBlankIncapableDrsCould Have BeenGeographyOf My MindMany FriendsButlersGeography And History
Book:Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution
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“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
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“Extinction has only separated groups: it has by no means made them; for if every form which has ever lived on this earth were suddenly to reappear, though it would be quite impossible to give definitions by which each group could be distinguished from other groups, as all would blend together by steps as fine as those between the finest existing varieties, nevertheless a natural classification, or at least a natural arrangement, would be possible.”

IfsGivingMeanMadeWould BeEarthTogetherFormScienceNaturalStepsImpossibleGroupsFineDefinitionsVarietyNeverthelessArrangementsFinestExtinctionDistinguishedClassificationTree Of Life
Book:On the Origin of Species
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“Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations whereas species were formerly thus connected.”

WellsScienceBeliefKnownSpeciesConnectedVarietyAcknowledgeDistinctionLatterCompelledHereafterPresent Day
Book:The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 16: The Origin of Species, 1876
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“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

KnowsLittlesDoeProblemScienceKnowledgePositiveHumilityIgnoranceConfidenceEvolutionScientistSpeciesIgnorantScience And ReligionPositivelyNatural SelectionBegetsTheismKnowledge Of GodScience ReligionCreationismTheory Of EvolutionMore KnowledgeScientific FactsScience GodWillful IgnoranceLittle KnowledgeKnowledge And IgnoranceCertain KnowledgeIgnorance Is Not Bliss
Book:Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution
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“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

KindLongScienceAnimalKnowledgeCreativityTeamEvolutionSurvivalMathematicsWorking TogetherTeamworkCollaborationCooperationEngineeringHumankindImprovisationImprovisingHuman EvolutionCollaboratingTeamwCooperation TeamworkCooperation And TeamworkImportunateSharing KnowledgeTeamwork And LoveTeam CollaborationCooperation And Collaboration
Book:Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution
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“The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career; yet it depended on so small a circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me 30 miles to Shrewsbury, which few uncles would have done, and on such a trifle as the shape of my nose.”

Has BeensImportantDoneWholeScienceCareersEventsCircumstancesShapesDeterminedMilesNosesOfferingUnclesBiographiesVoyagesTriflesImportant EventsBeagles
Book:The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 29:
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“[Herschel and Humboldt] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science. No one or a dozen other books influenced me nearly so much as these two. I copied out from Humboldt long passages about Teneriffe and read them aloud on one of [my walking excursions].”

LongTwoBookScienceNaturalWalkingStructureAddHumbleNobleBurningContributionPassagesDozenBiographiesZealNatural ScienceExcursions
Book:Charles Darwin: His Life in an Autobiographical Chapter and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters
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“I find in the domestic duck that the bones of the wing weigh less and the bones of the leg more, in proportion to the whole skeleton, than do the same bones in the wild duck; and this change may be safely attributed to the domestic duck flying much less, and walking more, than its wild parents.”

MayWholeScienceParentChangeWalkingWingsLegsBonesFlyingProportionDucksSkeletons
Book:The Origin of Species: A Variorum Text
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“It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, &c., present, that a proteine compound was chemically formed ready to undergo stillmore complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.”

IfsFirstsHas BeensSaidStillsMatterBigsLightWould BeScienceCasesConditionsReadyCreaturesComplexesProductionsWarmHeatSaltOrganismsElectricityCompoundsPondsPresent DayLiving CreaturesIfs AndLiving Organisms
Author:Charles Darwin
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“I see no good reason why the views given this volume [The Origin of Species] should shock the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how transient such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever made by man, namely, the law of attraction of gravity, was also attacked by Leibnitz, 'as subversive of natural, and inferentially of revealed, religion.'”

MenShouldMadeReasonFeelingsRememberLawScienceReligionGivenNaturalReligiousViewsDiscoverySpeciesAttractionImpressionLaw Of AttractionReason WhyShockGravityVolumeTransientSubversiveOrigin Of Species
Author:Charles Darwin
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