“I never gave up Christianity until I was forty years of age.”

Even people who aren’t geniuses can outthink the rest of mankind if they develop certain thinking habits.

I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them.

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider him created from animals.

It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.

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.

Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.

Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life.

The most powerful natural species are those that adapt to environmental change without losing their fundamental identity which gives them their competitive advantage.

Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.

In conclusion, it appears that nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in distant countries.

I am dying by inches, from not having any body to talk to about insects.

Light may be shed on man and his origins.

It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.

Those who are bold enough to advance before the age they live in, must learn to brave censure.

The fundamental event of the modern age is the conquest of the world as a picture.

Old age and treachery can always overcome youth and skill.

Staying young means being willing to learn, evolve, and be open to life.

We are entering the age of infinite examination and of compulsory objectification.

We stand at the end of the Age of Reason. A new era of the magical explanation of the world is rising.

Will you stay up late with me tonight? sit quietly while I write you into a piece of art that will be a marvel for the ages?

Life is a lonely journey. We expect and even believe that someone will always be there for us, but that illusion fades away with age and time.