Natural Selection Quotes

• I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Hair, Theory Of Evolution

  On the Origin of Species ch. 3 (1859)

  75 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.

  Richard Dawkins

  Health, Theory Of Evolution, Inspire

  Richard Dawkins (2015). “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design”, p.300, W. W. Norton & Company

  86 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let me lay my cards on the table. If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of even Newton or Einstein and everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law. It is not just a wonderful idea. It is a dangerous idea.

  Daniel Dennett

  Ideas, Space, Awards

  "Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life". Book by Daniel Dennett, 1995.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random.

  Richard Dawkins

  Selfish, Opposites, Society

  "The Blind Watchmaker". Book by Richard Dawkins, 1986.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Confidence, Atheist

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.6343, Delphi Classics

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Show source

• 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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Charles Darwin

  Struggle, Variation, Owing

  On the Origin of Species ch. 3 (1859)

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.

  Charles Darwin

  Theory Of Evolution, Creation Science, Evolution Of Man

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.213, Broadview Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why do people believe that there are dangerous implications of the idea that the mind is a product of the brain, that the brain is organized in part by the genome, and that the genome was shaped by natural selection?

  Steven Pinker

  Believe, Ideas, People

  7 Copy quote

• We may consequently state the fundamental theorem of Natural Selection in the form: The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time.

  Ronald Fisher

  Fundamentals, May, Natural

  "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection". Book by Ronald Fisher, 1930.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.

  Charles Darwin

  Thinking, Competition, Suffering

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.3831, Delphi Classics

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of Natural Selection, if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent.

  Charles Darwin

  Giving, Natural, Descent

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.490, Broadview Press

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Professor Eddington has recently remarked that 'The law that entropy always increases - the second law of thermodynamics - holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of nature'. It is not a little instructive that so similar a law [the fundamental theorem of natural selection] should hold the supreme position among the biological sciences.

  Ronald Fisher

  Thinking, Law, Fundamentals

  "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection". Book by Ronald Fisher, 1930.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved

  Charles Darwin

  Beautiful, Origin Of Life, Theory Of Evolution

  On the Origin of Species ch. 14 (1859)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

  Charles Darwin

  Origin Of Species, Strongest, Dies

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.247, Broadview Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.

  Charles Darwin

  Distance, Believe, Eye

  "The Collapse of Evolution". Book by Scott Huse, p. 73, 1996.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

  Charles Darwin

  Law, Advancement, Origin Of Species

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.244, Harvard University Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Natural selection is not evolution.

  Ronald Fisher

  Evolution, Natural, Selection

  "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection". Book by Ronald Fisher, 1930.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.

  Konrad Lorenz

  Science, Libertarian, Faces

  Konrad Lorenz (2005). “On Aggression”, p.115, Routledge

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Natural selection is anything but random.

  Richard Dawkins

  Natural, Selection

  Richard Dawkins (2017). “Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist”, p.204, Random House

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Positive, Confidence, Ignorance

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.33, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability.

  Ronald Fisher

  Math, Degrees, Statistics

  "Evolution in Action". Book by Julian S. Huxley, 1953.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, wherever and whenever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life.

  Charles Darwin

  Opportunity, Variation, World

  Charles Darwin, Paul H. Barrett, Peter Gautrey (1989). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 15: On the Origin of Species, 1859”, p.62, NYU Press

  16 Copy quote

  Show source