Charles Darwin Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• There is no fundamental difference between humans and the higher mammalsin their mental faculties

  Charles Darwin

  Differences, Fundamentals, Faculty

  10 Copy quote

• How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the world, so deeply impressed on the minds of men; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain is impressionable, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason.

  Charles Darwin

  Religious, Men, Essence

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of man”, p.95

  81 Copy quote

• I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation, & therefore not in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

  Charles Darwin

  Jesus, Sorry, Believe

  Letter to Frederick McDermott, www.darwinproject.ac.uk. November 24, 1880.

  28 Copy quote

• 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.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Race, Civilization

  Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man: the Evolution”, p.114, VM eBooks

  31 Copy quote

• He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation ... Man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor.

  Charles Darwin

  Believe, Men, Mammals

  Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.807, Diversion Books

  14 Copy quote

• To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree

  Charles Darwin

  Eye, Theory Of Evolution, Creation Science

  Charles Darwin (1861). “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.167

  21 Copy quote

• We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World.

  Charles Darwin

  Science, Men, Tails

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.6833, Delphi Classics

  10 Copy 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, Garden, Thinking

  69 Copy quote

• 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.

  Charles Darwin

  Beautiful, Simple, Cycling

  On the Origin of Species ch. 14 (1859)

  64 Copy quote

• ... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.

  Charles Darwin

  Earth, Firsts, Form

  Charles Darwin (2007). “On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.303, Cosimo, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

• Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music.

  Charles Darwin

  Nice, Book, Fire

  Charles Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 29: “Erasmus Darwin” by Ernest Krause, with a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin; “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” Edited by Nora Barlow; and Consolidated Index”, p.219, NYU Press

  21 Copy quote

• Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses, cattle, and dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his own marriage he rarely, or never, takes any such care.

  Charles Darwin

  Dog, Horse, Character

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.385

  19 Copy quote

• We behold the face of nature bright with gladness.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, Faces, Origin Of Species

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.133, Broadview Press

  10 Copy quote

• Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have found it so--than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Mind, Bears

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.62, Harvard University Press

  12 Copy quote

• Man, wonderful man, must collapse, into nature's cauldron, he is no deity, he is no exception.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Deities, Wonderful

  17 Copy quote

• 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

  18 Copy quote

• How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Children, Innocence

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.171, Courier Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• The most powerful natural species are those that adapt to environmental change without losing their fundamental identity which gives them their competitive advantage.

  Charles Darwin

  Powerful, Giving, Environmental

  23 Copy quote

• The moral faculties are generally and justly esteemed as of higher value than the intellectual powers.

  Charles Darwin

  Intellectual, Moral, Faculty

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.7574, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than the woman. Whether deep thought, reason, or imagination or merely the use of the senses and hands.....We may also infer.....The average mental power in man must be above that of woman.

  Charles Darwin

  Sex, Men, Average

  29 Copy quote

• Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt.

  Charles Darwin

  Art, Baking, Language

  Charles Darwin (1875). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.86

  12 Copy quote

• Even the humblest mammal's strong sexual, parental, and social instincts give rise to 'do unto others as yourself' and 'love thy neighbor as thyself'.

  Charles Darwin

  Love, Strong, Giving

  14 Copy quote

• Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker... the social instincts, - the prime principle of man's moral constitution - with the aid of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule, "As ye would that men should do to you; do ye to them likewise"; and this lies at the foundation of morality.

  Charles Darwin

  Lying, Men, Intellectual

  "The Descent of Man". Book by Charles Darwin, part I, chap. IV, 1871.

  7 Copy quote

• Light may be shed on man and his origins.

  Charles Darwin

  Nature, Men, Light

  13 Copy quote

• From my early youth I have had the strongest desire to understand or explain whatever I observed. ... To group all facts under some general laws.

  Charles Darwin

  Law, Desire, Groups

  Charles Darwin, Thomas F. Glick, David Kohn (1996). “On Evolution: The Development of the Theory of Natural Selection”, p.320, Hackett Publishing

  19 Copy quote

Page 4 of 16

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin