Charles Darwin's best quotes – and the one he never said
The top 3 according to 81 votes from people: …from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. · Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. · I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.. (Updated Jul 29, 2020.)
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.
Top 13
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1
…from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
On the Origin of Species (1859), last sentence.
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2
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.
The Descent of Man (1871), introduction.
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3
I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.
Letter to Joseph Hooker, January 1844.
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4
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
Letter from the Beagle voyage, in The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887).
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5
The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!
Letter to Asa Gray, 3 April 1860.
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6
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic.
Autobiography, in Life and Letters (1887).
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7
I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before, not even a Sailor in a slow-sailing ship.
Letter during his eight years studying barnacles, in Life and Letters (1887).
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8
It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist & an evolutionist.
Letter to John Fordyce, 7 May 1879.
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9
Animals whom we have made our slaves we do not like to consider our equals.
Transmutation notebooks (1837-1838).
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10
What a book a Devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horridly cruel works of nature!
Letter to Joseph Hooker, 13 July 1856.
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11
Science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them.
Autobiography.
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12
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.
Misattributed: a 1963 paraphrase by business professor Leon C. Megginson, not Darwin's words.
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13
I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.
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.
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Comments (1)
The barnacle one is my favourite. Eight years on barnacles would make anyone say that.