The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God. Charles Darwin More Quotes by Charles Darwin More Quotes From Charles Darwin Free will is to mind what chance is to matter. Charles Darwin mattermindscience A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there. Charles Darwin catinspirationalscience The most powerful natural species are those that adapt to environmental change without losing their fundamental identity which gives them their competitive advantage. Charles Darwin environmentalpowerfulgiving Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure. Charles Darwin doesciencelong He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation ... Man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor. Charles Darwin mammalsmenbelieve It is impossible to concieve of this immense and wonderful universe as the result of blind chance or necessity. Charles Darwin chanceimpossiblewonderful It strikes me that all our knowledge about the structure of our Earth is very much like what an old hen would know of the hundred-acre field in a corner of which she is scratching. Charles Darwin acreshensearth I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage ... will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it appears to me the doing what little we can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue. Charles Darwin sciencebelieveknowledge As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races. Charles Darwin racemencivilization Only the fittest will survive. Charles Darwin Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. Charles Darwin menlongbelieve From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows. Charles Darwin natureanimalwar Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral. Charles Darwin animalsympathyinspirational Nothing before had ever made me thoroughly realise, though I had read various scientific books, that science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them. Charles Darwin lawsciencebook ...I believe there exists, & I feel within me, an instinct for the truth, or knowledge or discovery, of something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue, & that our having such an instinct is reason enough for scientific researches without any practical results ever ensuing from them. Charles Darwin sciencebelieveknowledge What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly. Charles Darwin humilityfamemen I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it. Charles Darwin giving-upmindscience I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower from, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance. Charles Darwin lawmindmen 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 competitionsufferingthinking I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things. As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs. Charles Darwin mennightart
