Charles Darwin quotes

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection. His groundbreaking work “On the Origin of Species” changed how scientists view the diversity of life on Earth. He became a central figure in the history of biology and the study of evolution. Here are 193 of his quotes:

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.

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

The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

Charles Darwin

The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive, is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.

Charles Darwin

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

Charles Darwin

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

Charles Darwin

It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

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

I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.

Charles Darwin

What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!

Charles Darwin

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone.

Charles Darwin

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

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

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

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

Charles Darwin

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Charles Darwin

Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have found it so--than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.

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

We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

Charles Darwin

I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.

Charles Darwin

Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, ... I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.

Charles Darwin

The love of a dog for his master is notorious; in the agony of death he has been known to caress his master, and everyone has heard of the dog suffering under vivisection, who licked the hand of the operator; this man, unless he had a heart of stone, must have felt remorse to the last hour of his life.

Charles Darwin