Natural Selection Quotes - Page 3

• As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.

  Charles Darwin

  Life, Men, Judging

  The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Religion (p. 277)

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• 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)

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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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• It is essential for genetic material to be able to make exact copies of itself; otherwise growth would produce disorder, life could not originate, and favourable forms would not be perpetuated by natural selection.

  Maurice Wilkins

  Life, Science, Growth

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• 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

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• 

  A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Life, Encouraging

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.145, Courier Corporation

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• Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, ... I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.

  Charles Darwin

  Mean, Long, Obscure

  Charles Darwin, James T. Costa (2009). “The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”, p.6, Harvard University Press

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• Natural selection is almost always handled in general temps . . This means that it has no explanatory power when specific problems arise.

  Norman Macbeth

  Mean, Problem, Natural

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• Not every good idea survives. Not every new form of art is repeated. Not every new potential instinct is successful. Only the successful ones get repeated. By natural selection and then through repetition they become probable, more habitual.

  Rupert Sheldrake

  Art, Successful, Ideas

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• The theory of evolution by natural selection is an ecological theory-founded on ecological observation by perhaps the greatest of all ecologists. It has been adopted by and brought up by the science of genetics, and ecologists, being modest people, are apt to forget their distinguished parenthood.

  John L. Harper

  Science, Theory Of Evolution, People

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• The human brain became large by natural selection (who knows why, but presumably for good cause). Yet surely most "things" now done by our brains, and essential both to our cultures and to our very survival, are epiphenomena of the computing power of this machine, not genetically grounded Darwinian entities created specifically by natural selection for their current function.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Brain, Survival, Essentials

  "An Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Cardboard Darwinism", pp. 48 - 49, 1987.

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• It is good to keep in mind ... that nobody has ever succeeded in producing even one new species by the accumulation of micromutations. Darwin's theory of natural selection has never had any proof, yet it has been universally accepted.

  Richard Goldschmidt

  Mind, Accepted, Natural

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• Natural selection involves no plan, no goal, and no direction — just genes increasing and decreasing in frequency depending on whether individuals with those genes have, relative to other individuals, greater or lesser reproductive success.

  Randolph M. Nesse

  Goal, Individual, Natural

  Randolph M. Nesse, George C. Williams (2012). “Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine”, p.14, Vintage

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• I believe in the theory of evolution, but I believe as well in the allegorical truth of creation theory. In other words, I believe that evolution, including the principle of natural selection, is one of the tools used by God to create mankind. Mankind is then a participant in the creation of the universe itself, so that we have a closed loop. I believe that there is a level on which science and religious metaphor are mutually compatible.

  Christopher Langan

  God, Religious, Believe

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• . . . by natural selection our mind has adapted itself to the conditions of the external world. It has adopted the geometry most advantageous to the species or, in other words, the most convenient. Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.

  Henri Poincare

  Math, Mind, World

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• I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.

  Charles Darwin

  Motivational, Science, Theory Of Evolution

  "Got a problem? Our Evolutionary Agony Aunt can help" by Ian Sample, www.theguardian.com. December 2, 2009.

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• A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.

  Charles Darwin

  Friendship, Wisdom, Men

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.24, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.

  Charles Darwin

  Family, Brother, Atheist

  Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley (1983). “Autobiographies”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Clever, Favors, Evolution

  Barbara Ehrenreich (1990). “WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, Pantheon

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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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• Great is the power of steady misrepresentation

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Misrepresentation, Origin Of Species

  1859 The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

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• The great mathematician fully, almost ruthlessly, exploits the domain of permissible reasoning and skirts the impermissible. That his recklessness does not lead him into a morass of contradictions is a miracle in itself: certainly it is hard to believe that our reasoning power was brought, by Darwin's process of natural selection, to the perfection which it seems to possess.

  Eugene Wigner

  Believe, Perfection, Miracle

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• The difficulty of looking at a system like natural selection if you have any sort of moral sense yourself, is almost what makes it beautiful.

  Paul Bettany

  Beautiful, Moral, Natural

  "Paul Bettany: Playing Darwin with Creation". Interview with Adam Rutherford, www.theguardian.com. February 11, 2009.

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• Design can never be an ultimate explanation for anything. It can only be a proximate explanation. A plane or a car is explained by a designer but that's because the designer himself, the engineer, is explained by natural selection.

  Richard Dawkins

  Car, Design, Natural

  "The atheist". Interview with Gordy Slack, www.salon.com. April 30, 2005.

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• The Galapagos Islands are probably the most famous wildlife-watching destination in the world. And no wonder - it's almost impossible to exaggerate the sheer spectacle of the place that provided inspiration for Charles Darwin's ground-breaking theory of natural selection.

  Mark Carwardine

  Inspiration, Islands, World

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