Charles Darwin
British naturalist (1809 to 1882), born in Shrewsbury; sailed as naturalist on the five-year voyage of HMS Beagle from 1831; author of On the Origin of Species.
Charles Darwin did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
-
Our reading
Species are not fixed: species of the same genus descend from other, mostly extinct, species
Their wordsI am fully convinced that species are not immutable; but that those belonging to what are called the same genera are lineal descendants of some other and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the acknowledged varieties of any one species are the descendants of that species.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 1st of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsFurthermore, I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 2nd of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsA struggle for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which all organic beings tend to increase.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 3rd of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsFor my part, following out Lyell’s metaphor, I look at the natural geological record, as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 4th of 8 in this piece
-
Our reading
Natural selection can make no great or sudden change; it acts only by very short, slow steps
Their wordsAs natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short and slow steps.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 5th of 8 in this piece
-
Their wordsI believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number. Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants have descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 6th of 8 in this piece
-
Our reading
This theory will give psychology a new foundation and throw light on the origin of humans
Their wordsIn the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 7th of 8 in this piece
-
Our reading
There is grandeur in a view of life in which endless beautiful forms evolved from a simple beginning
Their wordsThere is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
↗On the Origin of Species (first edition, 1859)gutenberg.org 8th of 8 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.