Charles Darwin

A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die – which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct.

Charles Darwin

A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct actions of external conditions, and so forth.

Charles Darwin

A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem to him the best ones.

Charles Darwin

A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn’t there.

Charles Darwin

A naked man on a naked horse is a fine spectacle. I had no idea how well the two animals suited each other.

Charles Darwin

A novel according to my taste, does not come into the moderately good class unless it contains some person whom one can thoroughly love – and if a pretty woman, all the better.

Charles Darwin

A pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some dogs in a very peculiar manner, namely, by grinning.

Charles Darwin

A republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.

Charles Darwin

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections – a mere heart of stone.

Charles Darwin

After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject.

Charles Darwin