Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin, FRS FRGS FLS FZSwas an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in...
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth12 February 1809
CityShrewsbury, England
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.
The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than the woman. Whether deep thought, reason, or imagination or merely the use of the senses and hands.....We may also infer.....The average mental power in man must be above that of woman.
Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms.
We behold the face of nature bright with gladness.
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.
...for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.
To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.
Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a great deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.
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.
Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.
It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music.