Charles Darwin — "The expression of the emotions in man and animals."
The expression of the emotions in man and animals.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Charles Darwin
"To kill an error is as good a service as to establish a new truth."
"A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton."
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
"Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends."
"I have been much struck by the fact that the more I have read about the subject, the less I have understood it."
About Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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.
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
Emotional expression—facial movements, gestures, vocalizations—is not exclusive to humans but shared across the animal kingdom. What we feel and how we display it has biological roots, not merely cultural or spiritual ones. Grief, fear, joy, and disgust appear in dogs, apes, and infants alike. Our inner lives are continuous with other creatures, shaped by survival pressures over deep time rather than granted by divine privilege or human exceptionalism.
Relevance to Charles Darwin
Darwin spent years documenting emotional displays in his own children, domestic animals, and zoo specimens before publishing this as a book in 1872. After 'On the Origin of Species,' he extended evolutionary thinking to psychology—a bold step. He distributed questionnaires to missionaries worldwide asking whether remote peoples showed identical expressions. His meticulous, empirical temperament drove him to use photographs to document grief and disgust, reflecting his conviction that humans are animals shaped by the same evolutionary forces.
The era
In 1872, psychology barely existed as a formal discipline, and mainstream thought held human emotion as proof of a God-given soul separating us from beasts. Darwin published this amid furious post-Origin backlash—clergy and scientists insisted evolution could not explain the mind. Photography was newly available, enabling empirical documentation of expressions. Victorian society was grappling with industrialization, colonial encounters with 'other' peoples, and whether civilization itself was a product of nature or divine design.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].