I feel like an old warhorse at the sound of a trumpet when I read about the capturing of rare beetles.

... if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being perserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offsping similarly characterized. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection.

A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." Charles Darwin

If I had life to live over again, I would give my life to poetry, to music, to literature, and to art to make life richer and happier. In my youth I steeled myself against them and thought them so much waste.

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.

The world will not be inherited by the strongest, it will be inherited by those most able to change.

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