Charles Darwin Quotes About Animals

Quotes about: Animals

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  The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

  Charles Darwin

  Love, Life, Nature

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.25, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.

  Charles Darwin

  Pain, Animal, Men

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.23, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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

  Charles Darwin

  Teamwork, Creativity, Knowledge

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.23, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children.

  Charles Darwin

  Children, Pain, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2007). “The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition”, p.107, Penguin

• There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties...The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Equality, Men

• The love of a dog for his master is notorious; in the agony of death he has been known to caress his master, and everyone has heard of the dog suffering under vivisection, who licked the hand of the operator; this man, unless he had a heart of stone, must have felt remorse to the last hour of his life.

  Charles Darwin

  Dog, Heart, Animal

  "The Descent of Man". Book by Charles Darwin, volume I, chapter II: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals", p. 40, darwin-online.org.uk. 1871.

• Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a great deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.

  Charles Darwin

  Believe, Humble, Men

• But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Men, Doubt

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.68, Courier Corporation

• 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.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Men, Garden

  Charles Darwin (1884). “Darwinism Stated by Darwin Himself: Characteristic Passages from the Writings of Charles Darwin”

• Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.

  Charles Darwin

  Humility, Animal, Slave

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.16, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized 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. Thus the weak members of civilized 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. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Men, Theory Of Evolution

  "The Descent of Man". Book by Charles Darwin, February 24, 1871.

• Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Sympathy, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.145, Diversion Books

• In however complex a manner this feeling may have originated, as it is one of high importance to all those animals which aid and defend one another, it will have been increased through natural selection; for those communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Numbers, Community

  Charles Darwin (1875). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.107

• From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, War, Animal

  On the Origin of Species ch. 14 (1859)

• The number of humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree on the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Mr. H. Newman, who has long attended to the habits of humble-bees, ... says "Near villages and small towns I have found the nests of humble-bees more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the mice." Hence it is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in that district!

  Charles Darwin

  Flower, Cat, Humble

• Blushing is the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions. Monkeys redden from passion, but it would require an overwhelming amount of evidence to make us believe that any animal could blush.

  Charles Darwin

  Believe, Passion, Animal

  "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: the Evolution".

• Man is developed from an ovule, about 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs in no respect from the ovules of other animals.

  Charles Darwin

  Science, Animal, Men

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of man”, p.14

• Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an hermaphrodite! Here is a pleasant genealogy for mankind.

  Charles Darwin

  Swimming, Science, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2016). “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution”, p.453, VM eBooks

• Animals manifestly enjoy excitement, and suffer from annul and may exhibit curiosity.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Curiosity, Suffering

• So in regard to mental qualities, their transmission is manifest in our dogs, horses and other domestic animals. Besides special tastes and habits, general intelligence, courage, bad and good tempers. etc., are certainly transmitted.

  Charles Darwin

  Dog, Horse, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2015). “The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality”, p.26, 谷月社

• The lower animals, on the other hand, must have their bodily structure modified in order to survive under greatly changed conditions. They must be rendered stronger, or acquire more effective teeth or claws, in order to defend themselves from new enemies; or they must be reduced in size so as to escape detection and danger. When they migrate into a colder climate they must become clothed with thicker fur, or have their constitutions altered. If they fail to be thus modified, they will cease to exist.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Hands, Order

  Charles Darwin (1952). “The origin of species by means of natural selection: The descent of man and selection in relation to sex”

• We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention and curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals.

  Charles Darwin

  Love, Nature, Memories

  Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.176, Diversion Books

• Why does man regret, even though he may endeavour to banish any such regret, that he has followed the one natural impulse, rather than the other; and why does he further feel that he ought to regret his conduct? Man in this respect differs profoundly from the lower animals.

  Charles Darwin

  Regret, Science, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.531, Broadview Press

• Of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important. This sense, as Mackintosh remarks, "has a rightful supremacy over every other principle of human action"; it is summed up in that short but imperious word "ought," so full of high significance. It is the most noble of all the attributes of man, leading him without a moment's hesitation to risk his life for that of a fellow-creature; or after due deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause.

  Charles Darwin

  Sacrifice, Animal, Men

  "The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality".

• I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animal, the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important....It is the most noble of all the attributes of man.

  Charles Darwin

  Animal, Men, Differences

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