The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form.

The man who walks with Henslow.

We behold the face of nature bright with gladness.

We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.

Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved

I am actually weary of telling people that I do not pretend to adduce [direct] evidence of one species changing into another, but I believe that this view is in the main correct, because so many phenomena can thus be grouped end explained.

I cannot see ... evidence of design and beneficence ... There seems to me too much misery in the world.