Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in The Mount House, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom. Charles Darwin was a British naturalist, geologist and biologist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies.
Best known for his contributions to the science of evolution, Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book “On the Origin of Species”. He published another book “His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle”. This book established Darwin as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s conception of gradual geological change, and the publication of his journal “The voyage of the Beagle” made him famous as a popular author.
Charles Darwin died on the 19th of April, 1882 at the age of 73 in Down House, Downe, Kent, England. Below, you will find our collection of famous Charles Darwin quotes about evolution, life, time and change.
80 Charles Darwin Quotes About Time, Life & Evolution
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”― Charles Darwin
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”― Charles Darwin
“If everyone was cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty.” — Charles Darwin
“Evolution is written on the wings of butterflies.” ― Charles Darwin
“If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” — Charles Darwin
“… the structure of every organic being is related, in the most essential yet often hidden manner, to that of all the other organic beings …” ― Charles Darwin
“Free will is to mind what chance is to matter.” — Charles Darwin
“Through his powers of intellect, articulate language has been evolved; and on this his wonderful advancement has mainly depended.” ― Charles Darwin
“I am a firm believer, that without speculation there is no good and original observation.” — Charles Darwin
“I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men.” ― Charles Darwin
“The very essence of instinct is that it’s followed independently of reason.” ― Charles Darwin
“Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of Character.” ― Charles Darwin
“We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.”
― Charles Darwin
― Charles Darwin
“Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.”― Charles Darwin
“We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities… still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” ― Charles Darwin
“Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider him created from animals.”― Charles Darwin
“we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps”
― Charles Darwin
― Charles Darwin
“There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long voyage, which are of a more reasonable nature. The map of the world ceases to be a blank; it becomes a picture full of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes its proper dimensions: continents are not looked at in the light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which are, in truth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa, or North and South America, are well-sounding names, and easily pronounced; but it is not until having sailed for weeks along small portions of their shores, that one is thoroughly convinced what vast spaces on our immense world these names imply.”― Charles Darwin
“It is necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected.”― Charles Darwin
“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!”― Charles Darwin
“This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection.”― Charles Darwin
“To admit that species generally become rare before they become extinct—to feel no surprise at the comparative rarity of one species with another, and yet to call in some extraordinary agent and to marvel greatly when a species ceases to exist, appears to me much the same as to admit that sickness in the individual is the prelude to death—to feel no surprise at sickness—but when the sick man dies to wonder, and to believe that he died through violence.”― Charles Darwin
“… the structure of every organic being is related, in the most essential yet often hidden manner, to that of all the other organic beings …”― Charles Darwin
“Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity.”― Charles Darwin
“Therefore a man should examine for himself the great piles of superimposed strata, and watch the rivulets bringing down mud, and the waves wearing away the sea-cliffs, in order to comprehend something about the duration of past time, the monuments of which we see all around us.”― Charles Darwin
“The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.”― Charles Darwin
“A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, – a mere heart of stone.”― Charles Darwin
“To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.”― Charles Darwin
“We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.”― Charles Darwin,
“Origin of man now proved.—Metaphysics must flourish.—He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.” ― Charles Darwin
“The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen—this again offers contradiction to constant succession of germs in progress.” — Charles Darwin
“It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become modified; and the subject haunted me.” ― Charles Darwin
“I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work; and I still think there is an eminently important difference.” ― Charles Darwin
“A pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some dogs in a very peculiar manner, namely, by grinning.”― Charles Darwin
“Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire & books & music.” ― Charles Darwin
“False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.”― Charles Darwin
“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.” ― Charles Darwin
“On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation.” – Charles Darwin
“Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science.” ― Charles Darwin
“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.” ― Charles Darwin
“But a plant on the edge of a deserts is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent upon the moisture.” ― Charles Darwin
“It is so important to bear in mind the probability of conversion from one function to another.” ― Charles Darwin
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”― Charles Darwin
“I cannot here give references and authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy.” ― Charles Darwin
“The limit of man’s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighborhood to the realms of imagination.” ― Charles Darwin
“…it appears to me, the doing what little one can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelyhood pursue.” ― Charles Darwin
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
“Man is developed from an ovule, about 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs in no respect from the ovules of other animals.” — Charles Darwin
“The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.” ― Charles Darwin
“The question of whether there exists a Creator and Ruler of the Universe has been answered in the affirmative by some of the highest intellects that have ever existed.” ― Charles Darwin
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” ― Charles Darwin
“I must begin with a good body of facts and not from a principle (in which I always suspect some fallacy) and then as much deduction as you please.” — Charles Darwin
“The imagination is one of the highest prerogatives of man.” ― Charles Darwin
“One hand has surely worked throughout the universe.” ― Charles Darwin
“Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.”
― Charles Darwin
― Charles Darwin
“Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.”― Charles Darwin
“Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.”― Charles Darwin
“For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs—as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.”― Charles Darwin
“I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”― Charles Darwin
“As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.”― Charles Darwin
“I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ [parasitic wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.”
― Charles Darwin
― Charles Darwin
“In regard to the amount of difference between the races, we must make some allowance for our nice powers of discrimination gained by a long habit of observing ourselves.”― Charles Darwin
“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
― Charles Darwin
― Charles Darwin
“love of science—unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject—industry in observing and collecting facts—and a fair share of invention as well as of common sense. With such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that I should have influenced to a considerable extent the belief of scientific men on some important points.”― Charles Darwin
“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.”― Charles Darwin
“Let it also be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life; and consequently what infinitely varied diversities of structure might be of use to each being under changing conditions of life.”― Charles Darwin
“Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.” ― Charles Darwin
“But Natural Selection, as we shall hereafter see, is a power incessantly ready for action, and is immeasurably superior to man’s feeble efforts, as the works of Nature are to those of Art.” ― Charles Darwin
“One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges…” ― Charles Darwin
“An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.” ― Charles Darwin
“Certainly, no fact in the long history of the world is so startling as the wide and repeated exterminations of its inhabitants.” ― Charles Darwin
“Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an hermaphrodite! Here is a pleasant genealogy for mankind.” — Charles Darwin
“Species of the same genus would occasionally exhibit reversions to lost ancestral characters.” ― Charles Darwin
“A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.” ― Charles Darwin
“I am like a gambler, and love a wild experiment.” — Charles Darwin
“A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.” ― Charles Darwin
“If it wasn’t for seasickness, all the world would be sailors!” ― Charles Darwin
“What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly.” ― Charles Darwin
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” — Charles Darwin