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Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.
CHARLES DARWIN, Metaphysics, Materialism, and the Evolution of Mind
We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities ... still bears in his bodily frame that indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
CHARLES DARWIN, Descent of Man
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Origin of Species
As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Origin of Species
Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Descent of Man
I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number. Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants have descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless all living things have much in common, in their chemical composition, their germinal vesicles, their cellular structure, and their laws of growth and reproduction. We see this even in so trifling a circumstance as that the same poison often similarly affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gall-fly produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak-tree. I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed by the Creator.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
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 Descent of Man
It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals
A republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Voyage of the Beagle
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, The Descent of Man
Mere chance ... alone would never account for so habitual and large an amount of difference as that between varieties of the same species.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
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, On the Origin of the Species
Alas! A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections — a mere heart of stone.
CHARLES DARWIN, letter to T. H. Huxley, Jul. 9, 1857
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Voyage of the Beagle
One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
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, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
The shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
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, letter to Wilson, Mar. 5, 1879, More Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. 2
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 Descent of Man
When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
CHARLES DARWIN, letter to his sister, Susan Elizabeth Darwin, Aug. 4, 1836
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, Autobiography
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, On the Origin of the Species
Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.
CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the Species
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 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have staid in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. ... And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Voyage of the Beagle
False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often long endure; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, as every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened.
CHARLES DARWIN, The Descent of Man
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