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The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead so that passages cannot be seen-this again offers contradiction to constant succession of germs in progress.

Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin
Age: 73 †
Born: 1809
Born: February 12
Died: 1882
Died: April 19
Beekeeper
Botanist
Carcinologist
Entomologist
Ethologist
Explorer
Geologist
Naturalist
Philosopher
Travel Writer
The Mount
Shrewsbury
Charles Robert Darwin
Charles R. Darwin
Darwin
Seen
Branches
Called
Evolution
Science
Offers
Coral
Cannot
Constant
Germs
Life
Perhaps
Succession
Progress
Passages
Dead
Contradiction
Tree
Base

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Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations whereas species were formerly thus connected.
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We fancied even that the bushes smelt unpleasantly.
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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.
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Even when we are quite alone, how often do we think with pleasure or pain of what others think of us - of their imagined approbation or disapprobation.
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...one doubts existence of free will [because] every action determined by heredity, constitution, example of others or teaching of others. This view should teach one profound humility, one deserves no credit for anything...nor ought one to blame others.
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I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
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...for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.
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[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived.
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As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.
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He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
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In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God ... I think that generally (& more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind.
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You ask about my opinion on vivisection. I quite agree that it is justifiable for real investigations on physiology but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity.
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Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist.
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The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians.
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We feel surprise when travellers tell us of the vast dimensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins, but how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these, when compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by the agency of various minute and tender animals!
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Much love much trial, but what an utter desert is life without love.
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Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy.
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It is scarcely possible to doubt that the love of man has become instinctive in the dog.
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Building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
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