Charles Darwin

I am quite content to be a humble worker in the field of science.

We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as we can discover it.

I have always maintained that, in order to be a good naturalist, one must be a good observer.

The expression of the emotions in man and animals.

He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.

I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men.

The more we learn of the world, the more we are impressed with the marvellous adaptation of every creature to its conditions of life.

I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit, but am patient in observing and collecting facts, and in meditating on them.

I am quite conscious that how far my conclusions may be true, will be for others to judge.

I have no doubt that in the future, the study of the mind will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation.

The survival of the fittest.

Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

I have tried to show that the modification of the species is not a matter of chance, but of law.

The facts are too strong for the theory, however much I may love it.

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

The chief cause of the slow progress of natural history, and of the little interest it excites in the public mind, is the want of a general theory.

I have been much struck with the fact that the most important discoveries have been made by men who have not been afraid to make mistakes.

The study of natural history is a never-ending source of wonder and delight.

I have no belief that the world is a perfect place, but I do believe that it is a place of constant change and adaptation.

The strongest argument for the existence of God, as far as I can see, is the existence of the universe itself.