The more one thinks, the more one feels the hopeless immensity of man's ignorance.

The willing horse is always overworked.

Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

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

After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject.

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

I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brain... & therefore that when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes.