Quotessence
Home / Topics / Origin Of Species Quotes

Origin Of Species Quotes

Browse 95 quotes about Origin Of Species.

Related topics

Natural SelectionEvolutionScienceFormIfsMenInspirationalNaturalWorld

Origin Of Species Quotes

“To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both."—Bacon: "Advancement of Learning".”

ThinkingMenWellsBookPhilosophyScienceProgressWeakIllEndlessDivinityModerationAdvancementConceitSobrietyEndeavourOrigin Of Species
Book:The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species
Create image

“Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life!”

WorldFormLawCausesIgnoranceProfoundNeverthelessExtinctionDurationPresumptionInvokeDesolateOrigin Of Species
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)
Create image

“In less than eight years "The Origin of Species" has produced conviction in the minds of a majority of the most eminent living men of science. New facts, new problems, new difficulties as they arise are accepted, solved, or removed by this theory; and its principles are illustrated by the progress and conclusions of every well established branch of human knowledge.”

MenYearsMindHumansWellsFactsProblemSciencePrinciplesKnowledgeProgressAcceptanceTheorySolutionsDifficultyMajoritySpeciesConvictionEightAcceptedAriseConclusionBranchesHuman KnowledgeOrigin Of Species
Book:Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection: A Series of Essays
Create image

“It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about and with worms crawling through the damp earth and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms so different from each other and dependent on each other and so complex a manner have all been produced by laws acting around us.”

KindDifferentEarthFormLawNatureInterestingActingEnvironmentSingingBirdPlantComplexesVariousDependentContemplatingWormsInsectsCrawlingDampOrigin Of Species
Book:The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species
Create image

“The fundamental problem in the origin of species is not the origin of differences in appearance, since these arise at the level of the geographical race, but the origin of genetic segregation. The test of species-formation is whether, when two forms meet, they interbreed and merge, or whether they keep distinct.”

TwoProblemFormScienceDifferencesLevelsRaceTestsFundamentalsSpeciesAppearanceAriseSegregationFormationGeneticsOrigin Of Species
Book:Darwin's Finches
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“Consequently, if my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long as, or probably far longer than, the whole interval from the Silurian age to the present day; and that during these vast, yet quite unknown, periods of time, the world swarmed with living creatures. To the question why we do not find records of these vast primordial periods, I can give no satisfactory answer.”

IfsWorldGivingLongI CanWholeAgeAnswersRecordsTheoryPeriodsCreaturesBeing TrueLowestFossilsIntervalsPresent DayLiving CreaturesOrigin Of Species
Book:On the origin of species ... A facsimile of the first edition, with an introduction by Ernst Mayr. With a portrait and a bibliography
Create image

“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
Create image

“Each organic being is striving to increase in a geometrical ratio . . . each at some period of its life, during some season of the year, during each generation or at intervals, has to struggle for life and to suffer great destruction . . . The vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply.”

YearsSufferingStruggleGenerationsPeriodsHealthyDestructionSeasonsIncreaseStriveVigorousIntervalsRatiosOrigin Of Species
Book:The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the 'Beagle': Introduction by Richard Dawkins
Create image

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

MenLifeInspirationalSpiritualTimeValuesHoursMorningInspirational LifeWasteEternitySpeciesDareMeaningfulThis LifeLive LifeMy TimeThoughtfulTime ManagementWasting TimeOne TimeLive Your LifeEncouragingRight TimeMeaningful LifeInsperationalDaydreamingGreat TimesNatural SelectionBest TimesOne HourMaking TimeWasted TimeLive Life To The FullestNaturalistLife TimeValue Of LifeDon't Waste Your TimeTheory Of EvolutionWasting My TimeTime Of My LifeWasted LifeOrigin Of SpeciesHad A Great TimeManaging TimeLife And TimeDon't Waste TimeLife Is Not Worth LivingLive Your Life To The FullestLive To The FullestLiving A Simple LifeTime Of Your LifeWaste Of LifeValue Of TimeLife Being ShortLife Is Way Too ShortWasted My TimeTime ProverbsFuneral SympathyNot Wasting TimeWasted Time In LifeTime Is PreciousWaste Of SpaceWaste Of Effort
Book:Autobiography and Selected Letters
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

“This general tendency to eliminate, by means of unverifiable speculations, the limits of the categories nature presents to us is the inheritance of biology from The Origin of Species. To establish the continuity required by theory, historical arguments are invoked, even though historical evidence is lacking. Thus are engendered those fragile towers of hypothesis based on hypothesis, where fact and fiction intermingle in an inextricable confusion.”

MeanFactsFictionTheoryLimitsEvidenceArgumentHistoricalSpeciesConfusionTendenciesBiologyCategoriesFragileTowersLackingHypothesisSpeculationInheritanceContinuityOrigin Of SpeciesFact And Fiction
Author:W. R. Thompson
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

“If it is true that an influx of doubt and uncertainty actually marks periods of healthy growth in a science, then evolutionary biology is flourishing today as it seldom has flourished in the past. For biologists collectively are less agreed upon the details of evolutionary mechanics than they were a scant decade ago. Superficially, it seems as if we know less about evolution than we did in 1959, the centennial year of Darwin's on the Origin of Species.”

IfsKnowsYearsSeemsTodayPastGrowthDoubtEvolutionPeriodsHealthyMarkSpeciesDetailsDecadesUncertaintyBiologyMechanicFlourishingBiologistEvolutionary BiologyOrigin Of SpeciesCentennial
Book:Time Frames: The Evolution of Punctuated Equilibria
Create image

“In laying hands upon the sacred ark of absolute permanency, in treating the forms that had been regarded as types of fixity and perfection as originating and passing away, the Origin of Species introduced a mode of thinking that in the end was bound to transform the logic of knowledge, and hence the treatment of morals, politics, and religion.”

ThinkingIdeasEndsHandsFormReligiousMoralTypePerfectionLogicAbsolutesSacredSpeciesBoundsPassingPassingsTreatmentPassing AwayArkReligion And PoliticsOrigin Of Species
Book:The Essential Dewey: Pragmatism, education, democracy
Create image

“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
Create image

“The publication in 1859 of the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin made a marked epoch in my own mental development, as it did in that of human thought generally. Its effect was to demolish a multitude of dogmatic barriers by a single stroke, and to arouse a spirit of rebellion against all ancient authorities whose positive and unauthenticated statements were contradicted by modern science.”

HumansMadeScienceSpiritMy OwnModernEffectsDevelopmentAuthoritySpeciesAncientStatementsBarriersRebellionMultitudesStrokesPublicationModern ScienceEpochDogmaticHuman ThoughtOrigin Of SpeciesDemolish
Book:Memories of My Life
Create image