black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Charles Darwin

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.
CHARLES DARWIN

Animal Arrogance Believe Humble Man Work Worth
I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of Natural Selection, if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent.
CHARLES DARWIN

Absolute Addition Natural Requirement Science Selection Stage Theory
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn’t there.
CHARLES DARWIN

Black Blind Cat Darkness Man Mathematics Room
For the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.
CHARLES DARWIN

Important Shield Sword Victory
At no time am I a quick thinker or writer: whatever I have done in science has solely been by long pondering, patience and industry.
CHARLES DARWIN

Industry Patience Quick Science Time Writing
In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.
CHARLES DARWIN

Animal Collaboration History Human
An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.
CHARLES DARWIN

Alcohol Drunk Men Monkey Wise
To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree
CHARLES DARWIN

Absurd Confession Degree Natural Possible Selection
The moral faculties are generally and justly esteemed as of higher value than the intellectual powers.
CHARLES DARWIN

Esteem Faculty Intellectual Power Value
Even people who aren’t geniuses can outthink the rest of mankind if they develop certain thinking habits.
CHARLES DARWIN

Development Genius Habit Mankind People Thinking
We behold the face of nature bright with gladness.
CHARLES DARWIN

Face Glad Hold Nature Bright One Liner
I conclude that the musical notes and rhythms were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex.
CHARLES DARWIN

Acquire Conclude Female Male Mankind Music Rhythm
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.
CHARLES DARWIN

Book Reading
Some call it evolution, And others call it God.
CHARLES DARWIN

Evolution God
One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.
CHARLES DARWIN

Advance Die Law Live Organic Science Strong Weak
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
CHARLES DARWIN

Adapt Change Inspirational Intelligence Species Strong Survival
We are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
CHARLES DARWIN

Admit Change Greatness Slow Step
We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.
CHARLES DARWIN

Deep Inside Look Monster Realize Stop
Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.
CHARLES DARWIN

Goodness Man Nature Selection
Only the fittest will survive.
CHARLES DARWIN

Fitness Gumnastic One Liner Survival
Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science.
CHARLES DARWIN

Advance Freedom Men Mind Promotion Science Thinking
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
CHARLES DARWIN

Act Government Law Planet Satellite Science Sun System Universe
Hence, a traveller should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief embellishment.
CHARLES DARWIN

Chief Plant Travel View
The love of a dog for his master is notorious; in the agony of death he has been known to caress his master, and everyone has heard of the dog suffering under vivisection, who licked the hand of the operator; this man, unless he had a heart of stone, must have felt remorse to the last hour of his life.
CHARLES DARWIN

Agony Care Death Dog Love Loyalty Master
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
CHARLES DARWIN

Control Culture Moral Possible Recognize Stage Thinking
He who remains passive when over-whelmed with grief loses his best chance of recovering his elasticity of mind.
CHARLES DARWIN

Chance Grief Loss Mind Overwhelmed Recover
What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!
CHARLES DARWIN

Book Cruel Nature Work Writing

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Charles Darwin Quotes