Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desol...
The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.
Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.
The earthquake, however, must be to every one a most impressive event: the earth, considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet; and...
The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination.
As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates; so that we need feel no surprise at the inhabitant...
I agree with Agassiz that dogs possess something very like a conscience.
A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.
One day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand. Then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so I popped the one which I held in my righ...
How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.
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...
I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
I have called the principle by which each slight variation if useful is preserved by the term of Natural Selection.
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.
A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die - which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct.