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

But when on shore, & wandering in the sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than even Claude ever imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced it can understand.

I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me.

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

Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress.

... 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.

Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.