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.

Our descent, then, is the origin of our evil passions!! The devil under form of Baboon is our grandfather.

There is a grandeur in this view of life, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful are being evolved

Till facts are grouped & called there can be no prediction. The only advantage of discovering laws is to foretell what will happen & to see bearing of scattered facts.

Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist.

The loss of these tastes [for poetry and music] is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

Progress has been much more general than retrogression