Charles Darwin

If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.

We are not to expect to see and understand the whole at once.

I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit, which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance, Huxley. I am therefore a poor critic: a paper or book, even if it be good, always appears to me, after a first reading, to be obscure and confused.

We can allow that man has ascended from an animal state, and yet feel that he is something more than a mere animal.

Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

The highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity.

The more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become.

We are descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits.

The strongest argument for the existence of God, as far as I can discover, is the existence of conscience in man.

The very existence of man is a standing miracle.

The mind is a product of the brain, and the brain is a product of evolution.

The moral sense is the most important distinction between man and the lower animals.

I have always maintained that, in regard to the origin of life, science must remain silent.

The fact that many people are religious, and that this feeling is so strong, is a very interesting psychological phenomenon.

The mind of man is capable of anything, because it is made of everything.

The more complex the organism, the more complex its emotions.

It is a truly wonderful fact that all animals and plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in groups subordinate to groups.

The moral faculties are developed in the same manner as the physical faculties.

I have always felt that a man who has not made a contribution to science has not lived.

The highest good is the good of the species.