Science Quotes

Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.

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.

Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science.

We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.

We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

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.

Origin of man now proved. Metaphysics must flourish. He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.

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

A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.

The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.

But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animal, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?

Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pressure of the acutest grief; whereas in some parts of the Continent the men shed tears much more readily and freely.

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

The great variability of all the external differences between the races of man, likewise indicates that they cannot be of much importance; for if important, they would long ago have been either fixed and preserved, or eliminated.

How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!

He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not at all in agreement.

No doubt as long as man and all other animals are viewed as independent creations, an effectual stop is put to our natural desire to investigate as far as possible the causes of Expression.

I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.

It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain the what is the essence of the attraction of gravity?

Nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favoured my upholding them under a different form in my 'Origin of Species.