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Quotes from The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Charles Darwin

1809–1882 England

← All quotes by Charles Darwin

11 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)

We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

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)

I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

I have attempted to write the following account of myself, as if I were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life. Nor have I found this difficult, for life is nearly over with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

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 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)

Mr. Darwin begs me to say that he receives so many letters that he cannot answer them all. He considers that the theory of evolution is quite compatible with the belief in a God; but that you must remember that different persons have different definitions of what they mean by God.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. To those who fully admit the immortality of the human soul, the destruction of our world will not appear so dreadful.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Darwin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.