Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.

Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

Linnaeus and cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old aristotle.

I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.

In regard to the amount of difference between the races, we must make some allowance for our nice powers of discrimination gained by a long habit of observing ourselves.

What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly.

But a plant on the edge of a deserts is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent upon the moisture.

The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination.

It is necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected.

What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature.

And thus, the forms of life throughout the universe become divided into groups subordinate to groups.

I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification

It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war lurking just below the serene facade of nature

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone.