It occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made of this question (the origin of the species) by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it |
it's against my religion. |
like confessing a murder. |
Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope |
Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits |
Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence |
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. |
On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation |
See. It's just a theory! |
The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest but the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower animals. It is, however, impossible to maintain that this belief is instinctive in man. The idea of a universal and beneficent creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been elevated by long, continued culture. |
The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than woman can attain - whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses |
The explanation of types of structure in classes - as resulting from the will of the Deity, to create animals on certain plans - is no explanation. It has not the character of a physical law and is therefore utterly useless. It foretells nothing because we know nothing of the will of the Deity, how it acts and whether constant or inconstant like that of man. |
The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. |
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. |
The most powerful natural species are those that adapt to environmental change without losing their fundamental identity which gives them their competitive advantage. |