The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career; yet it depended on so small a circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me 30 miles to Shrewsbury, which few uncles would have done, and on such a trifle as the shape of my nose.

We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.‎

I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficient and omnipotent God would have designedly created...that a cat should play with mice.

In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.