At no time am I a quick thinker or writer: whatever I have done in science has solely been by long pondering, patience and industry..

On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, “Natura non facit saltum.” This c….

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation t….

Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life.

It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and free….

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

The Times is getting more detestable (but that is too weak word) than ever..

My books have sold largely in England, have been translated into many languages, and passed through several editions in foreign countries. I have hea….

On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, we gain no scientific explanation..

In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God ... I think that generally (& more and mo….

I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to show w….

The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions; but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed, and stil….

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 thr….

The explanation of types of structure in classes - as resulting from the will of the Deity, to create animals on certain plans - is no explanation. I….

It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flit….

A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die - which variety or species shall increase in number, and which ….

Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist..

Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal..

Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have..

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

Traveling ought also to teach him distrust; but at the same time he will discover, how many truly kind-hearted people there are, with whom he never b….