I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved, as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it.
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"As a proof of the admirable power of the mind, I may mention that I have been for some years training my mind to reject the evidence of my senses when they do not square with my preconceived notions."
"The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic."
"It is a cursed evil to any man to become so absorbed in any one subject as I am in mine."
"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."
"I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me."
British naturalist whose On the Origin of Species (1859) established evolution by natural selection — the unifying theory of modern biology. Closely associated with Thomas Henry Huxley (his 'bulldog' public defender) and Alfred Russel Wallace (independent co-discoverer of natural selection). For an intellectual contrast, see William Paley, Anglican theologian and Natural Theology author (1743-1805) — Origin of Species is structurally a 400-page reply to Paley — Darwin admired Paley's watchmaker-argument as an undergraduate at Cambridge and then spent 20 years building the empirical machinery to displace him. The cleanest 'design argument vs natural selection' founding rebuttal in science.
The standard scholarly entry points to Charles Darwin's work: Janet Browne (Harvard, history of science) — Charles Darwin: Voyaging (1995) and The Power of Place (2002); Adrian Desmond (UCL, biographer) — Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (1991, with James Moore). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Charles Darwin.
From his autobiography, describing his scientific integrity.
Date: c. 1870s
Self-DeprecatingFound in 1 providers: grok
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Intellectual honesty requires letting evidence override attachment. When you love an idea deeply — have invested time, reputation, and identity in it — the temptation is to rationalize away contradicting facts. This quote describes the opposite: a commitment to releasing any belief, no matter how cherished, the moment hard evidence proves it wrong. It's a definition of scientific thinking itself: truth matters more than being right.
Darwin spent over 20 years gathering evidence before publishing 'On the Origin of Species' in 1859, constantly revising and stress-testing his theory. Trained for the clergy, he let fossil and geological evidence erode his creationist beliefs entirely. On the Beagle voyage and afterward, he documented thousands of specimens before committing to conclusions. This wasn't timidity — it was exactly the discipline he described: evidence first, conclusions second, always.
Victorian England operated under natural theology — the accepted doctrine that nature's complexity proved divine creation. When Darwin published in 1859, most scientists and clergy believed species were fixed, designed by God. Geology was only beginning to reveal Earth's vast age. Darwin's insistence on evidence over assumption was radical: it directly threatened religious orthodoxy, established scientific consensus, and the social order built on both. Following facts wherever they led was genuinely dangerous.
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