I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.

The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for 
the existence of God.

Natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight successive favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short steps.

I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things. As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs.

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

With mammals the male appears to win the female much more through the law of battle than through the display of his charms.

It is scarcely possible to doubt that the love of man has become instinctive in the dog.