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It has sometimes been said that the success of the Origin proved that the subject was in the air, or that men's minds were prepared for it. I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species.

Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin
Age: 73 †
Born: 1809
Born: February 12
Died: 1882
Died: April 19
Beekeeper
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The Mount
Shrewsbury
Charles Robert Darwin
Charles R. Darwin
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It's not the strongest, but the most adaptable that survive.
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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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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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People complain of the unequal distribution of wealth [but it is a far greater] injustice that any one man should have the power to write so many brilliant essays... There is no one who writes like [Thomas Huxley].
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Great is the power of steady misrepresentation but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.
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Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits.
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It is a fatal fault to reason whilst observing, though so necessary beforehand and so useful afterwards.
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I ought, or I ought not, constitute the whole of morality.
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I worked on true Baconian principles, and without any theory collected facts.
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We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.
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Thomson's views on the recent age of the world have been for some time one of my sorest troubles.
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The world will not be inherited by the strongest, it will be inherited by those most able to change.
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Who when examining in the cabinet of the entomologist the gay and exotic butterflies, and singular cicadas, will associate with these lifeless objects, the ceaseless harsh music of the latter, and the lazy flight of the former - the sure accompaniments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics.
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Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.
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The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than the woman. Whether deep thought, reason, or imagination or merely the use of the senses and hands.....We may also infer.....The average mental power in man must be above that of woman.
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There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.
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Building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
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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.
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That there is much suffering in the world no one disputes. Which is more likely, that pain and evil are the result of an all-powerful and good God, or the product of uncaring natural forces? The presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.
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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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