From my early youth I have had the strongest desire to understand or explain whatever I observed. ... To group all facts under some general laws.

Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.

we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps

You will be astonished to find how the whole mental disposition of your children changes with advancing years. A young child and the same when nearly grown, sometimes differ almost as much as do a caterpillar and butterfly.

Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt.

Formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle, when I could take only a single small volume, I always chose Milton.

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