Charles Darwin Quotes

Most popular Charles Darwin Quotes

Nature will tell you a direct lie if she can. - Charles Darwin quote.
Nature will tell you a direct lie if she can.
— Charles Darwin

nature

I love fools' experiments. I am always making them. - Charles Darwin quote.
I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.
— Charles Darwin

experiments

A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth. - Charles Darwin quote.
A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
— Charles Darwin

friendship

Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence. - Charles Darwin quote.
Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence.
— Charles Darwin

mankind

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason. - Charles Darwin quote.
The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.
— Charles Darwin
Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal. - Charles Darwin quote.
Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.
— Charles Darwin

animals

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections—a mere heart of stone. - Charles Darwin quote.
A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections—a mere heart of stone.
— Charles Darwin

scientists

How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children. - Charles Darwin quote.
How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.
— Charles Darwin

children

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. - Charles Darwin quote.
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
— Charles Darwin The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin

wasting time time

The more one thinks, the more one feels the hopeless immensity of man's ignorance. - Charles Darwin quote.
The more one thinks, the more one feels the hopeless immensity of man's ignorance.
— Charles Darwin

ignorance

It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine. - Charles Darwin quote.
It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.
— Charles Darwin
I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions. - Charles Darwin quote.
I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.
— Charles Darwin

scientists

I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. - Charles Darwin quote.
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.
— Charles Darwin
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties. - Charles Darwin quote.
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties.
— Charles Darwin
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. - Charles Darwin quote.
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
— Charles Darwin

morals thoughts

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. - Charles Darwin quote.
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
— Charles Darwin

poverty

On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation. - Charles Darwin quote.
On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation.
— Charles Darwin

evolution

My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. - Charles Darwin quote.
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
— Charles Darwin

scientists

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. - Charles Darwin quote.
To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.
— Charles Darwin

error

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic. - Charles Darwin quote.
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.
— Charles Darwin

agnostic

An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men. - Charles Darwin quote.
An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.
— Charles Darwin

man the animal

Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World. - Charles Darwin quote.
Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World.
— Charles Darwin The Origin of Species

mankind

What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature! - Charles Darwin quote.
What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!
— Charles Darwin

evolution

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection. - Charles Darwin quote.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
— Charles Darwin The Origin of Species

evolution science

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. - Charles Darwin quote.
In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.
— Charles Darwin

evolution

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others. - Charles Darwin quote.
A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others.
— Charles Darwin

morals

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin quote.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
— Charles Darwin

famous iconic evolution

In the survival of favoured individuals and races, during the constantly-recurring struggle for existence, we see a powerful and ever-acting form of selection. - Charles Darwin quote.
In the survival of favoured individuals and races, during the constantly-recurring struggle for existence, we see a powerful and ever-acting form of selection.
— Charles Darwin

nature

We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. - Charles Darwin quote.
We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
— Charles Darwin

mankind

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act. - Charles Darwin quote.
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
— Charles Darwin

evolution

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world. - Charles Darwin quote.
At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world.
— Charles Darwin

predictive

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars. - Charles Darwin quote.
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.
— Charles Darwin

God evolution

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. - Charles Darwin quote.
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.
— Charles Darwin

ignorance

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness. - Charles Darwin quote.
False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.
— Charles Darwin

science truth

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. - Charles Darwin quote.
If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use.
— Charles Darwin
It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but 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. - Charles Darwin quote.
It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but 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.
— Charles Darwin The Descent of Man

ignorance

Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits.
— Charles Darwin

evolution

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our own thoughts.
— Charles Darwin The Descent of Man

self-control

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives—of approving of some and disapproving of others.
— Charles Darwin

morals

We must, however, acknowledge as it seems to me, that a man with all his noble qualities...still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
— Charles Darwin

science

We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities ... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
— Charles Darwin

evolution mankind