Charles Darwin Quotes - Page 8

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Whenever I have found that I have blundered, or that my work has been imperfected, and when I have been contemptuously criticised, and even when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that 'I have worked as hard as I could, and no man can do more than this.'

Charles Darwin

Men, Comfort, Found

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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.

Charles Darwin

Science, Men, Should Have

Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Darwin (1898). “The life and letters of Charles Darwin...ed. by his son, Francis Darwin. 2 v”

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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.

Charles Darwin

Strong, Struggle, Principles

Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.9, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern?

Charles Darwin

Horse, Men, Hands

Charles Darwin (1872). “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.441

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I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things. As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs.

Charles Darwin

Art, Night, Men

Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.494, Broadview Press

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It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another...we consider those, where the intellectual faculties most developed as the highest. - A bee doubtless would [use] ... instincts as a criteria.

Charles Darwin

Animal, Intellectual, Use

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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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I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower from, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance.

Charles Darwin

Men, Law, Mind

Charles Darwin (1883). “The Descent of Man and Seletion in Relation to Sex”, p.613, Рипол Классик

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The loss of these tastes [for poetry and music] is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

Charles Darwin

Character, Loss, Emotional

"Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution".

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...he who remains passive when over-whelmed with grief loses his best chance of recovering his elasticity of mind.

Charles Darwin

Grief, Mind, Chance

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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

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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)

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It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate the mind.

Charles Darwin

Ideas, Giving, Feelings

Philip Parker King, Sir Francis Darwin, Robert Fitzroy, Charles Darwin (1839). “Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle: Between the Years 1826 and 1836 ...”, p.29

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But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.

Charles Darwin

Lying, Believe, Theory Of Evolution

Charles Darwin (2012). “On the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle”, p.162, Graphic Arts Books

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But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.

Charles Darwin

Cat, Play, Design

Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.28, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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With highly civilised nations continued progress depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; for such nations do not supplant and exterminate one another as do savage tribes.

Charles Darwin

Progress, Degrees, Savages

Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.199, Diversion Books

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Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions.

Charles Darwin

Animal, Men, Humanity

Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.171, Diversion Books

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I had gradually come, by this time [1839-01], to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow as a sign, etc., etc. and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian.

Charles Darwin

Book, Tyrants, Rainbow

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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”

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The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable—namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man. For, firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them.

Charles Darwin

Men, Animal, Intellectual

Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.5, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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Ultimately a highly complex sentiment, having its first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled by reason, self-interest, and in later times by deep religious feelings, confirmed by instruction and habit, all combined, constitute our moral sense or conscience.

Charles Darwin

Religious, Men, Self

Charles Darwin (2010). “Evolutionary Writings: including the Autobiographies”, p.427, OUP Oxford

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What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!

Charles Darwin

Inspirational, Nature, Book

Letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 July 1856

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It is not the conscience which raises a blush, for a man may sincerely regret some slight fault committed in solitude, or he may suffer the deepest remorse for an undetected crime, but he will not blush... It is not the sense of guilt, but the thought that others think or know us to be guilty which crimsons the face.

Charles Darwin

Regret, Men, Emotional

Charles Darwin (1874). “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, p.332

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It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the plan of
creation or unity of design, etc., and to think that we give an explanation
when we only restate a fact.

Charles Darwin

Ignorance, Thinking, Expression

Charles Darwin (2016). “On the Origin of Species”, p.357, Zillmann Publishing

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This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of Character.

Charles Darwin

Character, Fundamentals, Extinction

Charles Darwin (1870). “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”, p.12

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Born: February 12, 1809
Died: April 19, 1882
Occupation: Naturalist
Cite this Page: Citation

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