509 Quotes by Charles Darwin

An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.

What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly.

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.

The willing horse is always overworked.

After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.‎

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

Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous small details of habits, tastes and dispositions between two or more domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument that all are descended from a common progenitor who was thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed under the same species. The same argument may be applied with much force to the races of man.

If every one were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty.