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Nothing can be more hopeless than to attempt to explain this similarity of pattern in members of the same class, by utility or by the doctrine of final causes.

— Charles Darwin Origin of Species (1859)

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Philosophy

More quotes by Charles Darwin

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)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

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