The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. Charles Darwin More Quotes by Charles Darwin More Quotes From Charles Darwin My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. Charles Darwin lawmindinspirational The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability. Charles Darwin adaptabilitysurvivalimportant I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars. Charles Darwin gardengodthinking How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children. Charles Darwin innocenceinspirationalchildren The more I study nature, the more I become impressed with ever-increasing force with the conclusion, that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations slowly acquired through each part occasionally varying in a slight degree but in many ways, with the preservation or natural selection of those variations which are beneficial to the organism under the complex and ever-varying conditions of life, transcend in an incomparable degree the contrivances and adaptations which the most fertile imagination of man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal. Charles Darwin naturebeautifulmen We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. Charles Darwin survivalstrugglescience I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture. Charles Darwin menlongideas I am dying by inches, from not having any body to talk to about insects. Charles Darwin inchesbodydying Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than humans would at first suppose. Charles Darwin importantworldfirsts Daily it is forced home on the mind of the biologist that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of the crust of this earth. Charles Darwin blowhomescience Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker... the social instincts, - the prime principle of man's moral constitution - with the aid of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule, "As ye would that men should do to you; do ye to them likewise"; and this lies at the foundation of morality. Charles Darwin intellectualmenlying We feel surprise when travellers tell us of the vast dimensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins, but how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these, when compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by the agency of various minute and tender animals! Charles Darwin agencynatureanimal A bad earthquake at once destroys the oldest associations: the world, the very emblem of all that is solid, has moved beneath our feet like a crust over a fluid; one second of time has conveyed to the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflection would never have created. Charles Darwin reflectionearthquakesideas When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly forsee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. Charles Darwin revolutionviewsnatural Every one must be struck with astonishment, when he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral-rock, often many leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green color. Charles Darwin oceannaturereflection ... 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. Charles Darwin formearthfirsts Man, wonderful man, must collapse, into nature's cauldron, he is no deity, he is no exception. Charles Darwin deitieswonderfulmen I cannot see ... evidence of design and beneficence ... There seems to me too much misery in the world. Charles Darwin designtoo-muchworld ...conscience looks backwards and judges past actions, inducing that kind of dissatisfaction, which if weak we call regret, and if severe remorse. Charles Darwin regretjudgingpast Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends. Charles Darwin origin-of-speciesgood-naturemen
