Charles Darwin Quotes

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

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives—of approving of some and disapproving of others.

He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not at all in agreement.

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

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

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

It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.

[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived.

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.

Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science.

It is necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us and I for one must be content to remain agnostic.

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

As for a future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague possibilities.

The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate and is sometimes equally convenient.

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle.

An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world.

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

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

The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.

I have tried lately to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

None can reply - all seems eternal now. The wilderness has a mysterious tongue, which teaches awful doubt.

It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war lurking just below the serene facade of nature.

I agree with Agassiz that dogs possess something very like a conscience.

One hand has surely worked throughout the universe.

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.

Light may be shed on man and his origins.

I have called this principle by which each slight variation if useful is preserved by the term natural selection.

The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the "Survival of the fittest" is more accurate and is sometimes equally convenient.

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

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.

A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die - which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct.

Origin of man now proved.—Metaphysics must flourish.—He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.

But I am very poorly today & very stupid & I hate everybody & everything. One lives only to make blunders.

Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.

On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation.

The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination.

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

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