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Charles (Robert) Darwin    1809 - 1882

Moralische Kultur hat ihren höchsten Stand erreicht, wenn wir erkennen, daß wir unsere Gedanken kontrollieren       können.

Ich zweifle in der Tat, ob Humanität eine natürliche oder ungeborene Eigenschaft ist.

Die natürliche Auswahl ist das wichtigste, aber nicht das einzige Mittel der Veränderung . / I am convinced that natural       selection has been the most important, but not the exclusive, means of modification.

Alles, was gegen die Natur ist, hat auf die Dauer keinen Bestand.

Bewunderung besteht aus Überraschung in Begleitung von etwas Vergnügen und einem Gefühle der Zustimmung.

Ohne Spekulation gibt es keine neue Beobachtung. / I am a firm believer that without speculation there is no good and       original observation

Die Tiere empfinden wie der Mensch Freude und Schmerz, Glück und Unglück.

Ich habe nicht die geringste Angst vor dem Sterben. / I am not the least afraid to die.

Wir müssen einräumen, daß der Mensch mit allen seinen hohen Eigenschaften noch immer in seinem Körper den       unauslöschlichen Stempel seines niederen Ursprungs trägt.

Jedermann wird zugestehen, daß der Mensch ein soziales Wesen ist. Wir sehen es in seiner Abneigung gegen Einsamkeit       sowie seinem Wunsch nach Gesellschaft über den Rahmen seiner Familie hinaus.

Denken Sie darüber nach, was es in Ihrem jetzigen Leben an Gutem gibt, nicht darüber, was Sie in der Vergangenheit       an Mißgeschicken erlebt haben, von denen allen Menschen einige widerfahren sind.

Es besteht eine konstante Tendenz allen beseelten Lebens, sich so weit zu vermehren, dass die verfügbare Nahrung       nicht ausreicht.

Ich habe nicht die leiseste Ahnung davon gehabt, daß in einem fünfmonatlichen Kinde so viel liegen könnte.

Wenn sie nur kann, wird die Natur dich dreist belügen.

Wenn wir Zeuge irgend einer tiefen Erregung sind, so wird unter Mitgefühl so stark erregt, daß es fast unmöglich wird,       oder wir vergessen, eine sorgfältige Beobachtung anzustellen.

Wer auch nur eine Stunde seiner Zeit zu vergeuden wagt, hat den Wert des Lebens noch nicht erkannt.

Ergebenheit ist in einem gewissen Grade mit Zuneigung verwandt, obschon sie, hauptsächlich aus Ehrfurcht bestehend,       häufig mit Furcht verbunden ist.

Nichts in der Geschichte des Lebens ist beständiger als der Wandel.

Die natürliche Auslese sorgt dafür, daß immer die Stärksten oder die am besten Angepaßten überleben.

Nur ein Narr macht keine Experimente.

Die Zeit ist die wichtigste Zutat im Rezept des Lebens.

Im Fortschritt der Geschichte nimmt die Phantasie ab und das Denken zu.

Die Säugetiere haben die Dinosaurier verdrängt, weil sie schneller, kleiner und agressiver waren.

Der Mensch, der es wagt, eine einzige Stunde seines Lebens zu vergeuden, hat den Wert des Lebens noch nicht       entdeckt. / A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.

A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and       disapproving of others.

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

An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.

Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly       exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world.

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by       some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.

How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.

I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the       express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved and I cannot       resist forming one on every

I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know       much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively       have prevailed.

It has been a bitter mortification for me to digest the conclusion that the 'race is for the strong' and that I shall probably       do little more but be content to admire the strides others made in science.

It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.

It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most       adaptable to change.

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.

The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

The presence of a body of well-instructed men, who have not to labor for their daily bread, is important to a degree       which cannot be overestimated; as all high intellectual work is carried on by them, and on such work material       progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to mention other and higher advantages.

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose,       no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the       smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.

We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame       the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

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