Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection. Here’s some popular Charles Darwin Quotes.
Charles Robert Darwin is considered by many to be one of the world’s greatest scientists and a leading figure in evolutionary biology.
What Darwin Didn’t Say
As one of the most quoted people in history, there have been a few quotes attributed to Darwin which he didn’t actually say! The first is:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.
This misquote of Darwin is thought to have arisen from Leon C. Megginson, Professor of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Don’t believe us? Read the On the Origin of Species and tell us if you can find it anywhere!
Another misquote of Darwin is:
In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment
This came from a 1960s textbook.
Other misquotes include:
In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.
The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?
Best Charles Darwin Quotes
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man
Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure
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.
Who can explain why one species ranges widely and is very numerous, and why another allied species has a narrow range and is rare?
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts
Famous Quotes By Charles Darwin
False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness
I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions
A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, – a mere heart of stone
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
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
Quotes From Charles Darwin
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
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin
I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men
One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die
Well Known Quotes Charles Darwin
A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
I am quite conscious that my speculations run quite beyond the bounds of true science.
A republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
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.
Building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than the establishing of a new truth or fact.
It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.
How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.
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.
An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.
Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.
The very essence of instinct is that it’s followed independently of reason.
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.
Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits.
Alas! A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections — a mere heart of stone.
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