Skip to content

The demand for exceptional ability, when combined with energy and good character, is so great that a lad who is gifted with them is hardly more likely to remain over looked than a bird’s nest in the playground of a school.

— Francis Galton

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Galton wrote the (lengthy) introduction for this update to Hereditary Genius, while Schuster prepared the statistical data.

More quotes by Francis Galton

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

Anthropology teaches us to sympathise with other races, and to regard them as kinsmen rather than aliens.

Opening Remarks by the President (1886)

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.

One of the effects of civilisation 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.

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.

All Francis Galton quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Francis Galton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.