93 quotes
I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
"I sometimes think that general and popular treatises are almost as important for the progress of science as original work”
The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.
The Origin of Species (1859)
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.
The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!
But some degree of intelligence appears, as we shall see in the next chapter, to be exhibited in this work,—a result which has surprised me more than anything else in regard to worms.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!
This leads me to remark that I have almost always been treated honestly by my reviewers, passing over those without scientific knowledge as not worthy of notice.
Autobiography (1958)
Mere chance … alone would never account for so habitual and large an amount of difference as that between varieties of the same species and species of the same genus.
Origin of Species (1859)
To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits belonging to these assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory answer.
… cell of a tentacle, showing the various forms successively assumed by the aggregated masses of protoplasm.
Insectivorous Plants (1875)
I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist & an evolutionist. … I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.
Through the principle of associated habit, the same movements of the face and eyes are practised, and can, indeed, hardly be avoided, whenever we know or believe that others are blaming, or too strongly praising, our moral conduct.
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
Every morning during certain seasons of the year, the thrushes and blackbirds on all the lawns throughout the country draw out of their holes an astonishing number of worms; and this they could not do, unless they lay close to the surface.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
I think it can be shown that there is such an unerring power at work in Natural Selection (the title of my book), which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being.
Earth-worms abound in England in many different stations. Their castings may be seen in extraordinary numbers on commons and chalk-downs, so as almost to cover the whole surface, where the soil is poor and the grass short and thin.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
These [calciferous] glands (see Fig. 1), judging from their size and from their rich supply of blood-vessels, must be of much importance to the animal. But almost as many theories have been advanced on their use as there have been observers.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
As I was led to keep in my study during many months worms in pots filled with earth, I became interested in them, and wished to learn how far they acted consciously, and how much mental power they displayed.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)
There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.