Francis Galton Quotes

What nature does blindly, slowly and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly, and kindly. As it lies within his power, so it becomes his duty to work in that direction.

Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.

The cat is the only non-gregarious domestic animal. It is retained by its extra-ordinary adhesion to the comforts of the house in which it is reared.

The aim of eugenics is to represent each class or sect by its best specimens; that done, to leave them to work out their common civilization in their own way.

One of the effects of civilization is to diminish the rigour of the application of the law of natural selection. It preserves weakly lives that would have perished in barbarous lands.

[Statistics are] the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of Man.

Whenever you can, count.

All male animals, including men, when they are in love, are apt to behave in ways that seem ludicrous to bystanders.

The object . . . is to discover methods of condensing information concerning large groups of allied facts into brief and compendious expressions suitable for discussion.

Characteristics cling to families.

I do not so easily think in words.... after being hard at work having arrived at results that are perfectly clear... I have to translate my thoughts in a language that does not run evenly with them.

Well-washed and well-combed domestic pets grow dull; they miss the stimulus of fleas.

Exercising the right of occasional suppression and slight modification, it is truly absurd to see how plastic a limited number of observations become, in the hands of men with preconceived ideas.

Life is a republic where the individuals are for the most part unconscious that while they are working for themselves they are also working for the public good.

The conditions that direct the order of . . . the living world . . . are marked by their persistence in improving the birthright of successive generations.