93 quotes
I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
Even insects express anger, terror, jealousy, and love by their stridulation.
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
To my mind there are no advantages and many disadvantages in lectures compared with reading.
Autobiography (1958)
Science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them.
Autobiography (1958)
A cell is a complex structure, with its investing membrane, nucleus, and nucleolus.
What a book a Devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horridly cruel works of nature!
Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions.
The Descent of Man (1871)
Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.
On the Origin of Species (1859)
I often find myself going back to Darwin's saying about the duration of a man's friendships being one of the best measures of his worth.
It may be presumed that all animals which feed on various substances possess the sense of taste, and this is certainly the case with worms.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
The time is always ripe for the re-interpretation of theories in the light of new vision and of new facts. This is the very province of science.
Autobiography (1958)
It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
The Origin of Species (1859)
When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its burrow—to use the expression employed by a friend—we are at first led to look at the action as a reflex one.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children.
The Descent of Man (1871)
Alas! A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections — a mere heart of stone.
I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before, not even a Sailor in a slow-sailing ship.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)