# Charles Darwin's best quotes – and the one he never said

From 'endless forms most beautiful' to the Devil's chaplain and the peacock's tail that made him sick: Charles Darwin's own words from his books and letters, plus the famous line about adaptability that is not his.

- 81 votes · 13 items
- Jul 29, 2020 · Bree Nguyen
- https://even.best/en/l/4642/charles-darwin-s-best-quotes-and-the-one-he-never-said

## Top 13

1. **…from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.** (9 · ▲10 ▼1) — On the Origin of Species (1859), last sentence.
2. **Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — The Descent of Man (1871), introduction.
3. **I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — Letter to Joseph Hooker, January 1844.
4. **A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Letter from the Beagle voyage, in The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887).
5. **The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Letter to Asa Gray, 3 April 1860.
6. **The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic.** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Autobiography, in Life and Letters (1887).
7. **I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before, not even a Sailor in a slow-sailing ship.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Letter during his eight years studying barnacles, in Life and Letters (1887).
8. **It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist & an evolutionist.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Letter to John Fordyce, 7 May 1879.
9. **Animals whom we have made our slaves we do not like to consider our equals.** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Transmutation notebooks (1837-1838).
10. **What a book a Devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horridly cruel works of nature!** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Letter to Joseph Hooker, 13 July 1856.
11. **Science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Autobiography.
12. **It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Misattributed: a 1963 paraphrase by business professor Leon C. Megginson, not Darwin's words.
13. **I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.** (-1 · ▲2 ▼3) — As recalled by the zoologist Ray Lankester.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.