Darwin quotes

Ants, slavery, and non neutrality of language

absolutely dependent on its slaves; without their aid, the species would certainly become extinct in a single year... A score of the slave-makers [against the ]slave species... They were eagerly seized, and carried off by the tyrants

Colossal loss of life

The latter ruthlessly killed their small opponents, and carried their dead bodies as food to their nest…

Breath of Life

Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed (by the creator in second edition)

Domesticity

As has always been my practice, let us seek light on this head from our domestic productions

Familiar experiences

It is good to wander along lines of sea

Anticipating objections

to the question why we do not find records of these vast primordial periods, I can give no satisfactory answer

Geological record

I look at the natural geological record, as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines

Struggle for existence

I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence in a large and metaphorical sense

Savage regarding a boat

When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a history; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting, I speak from experience, will the study of natural history become

Pigeons

I have, after deliberation, taken up domestic pigeons. I have kept every breed which I could purchase or obtain, and have been most kindly favoured with skins from several quarters of the world… I have associated with several eminent fanciers, and have been permitted to join two of the London Pigeon Clubs

Personal experiments

Having found a female tree exactly sixty years from a male tree, I put the stigmas of twenty flowers, taken from different branches, under the miscroscope

Relations

It is a truly wonderful fact… that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other

Tree of life

so I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications

Limit of change

I can see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and infinite complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings

Generations

What an infinite number of generations, which the mind cannot grasp, must have succeeded each other in the long roll of years!

War of nature

When we reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves with the full belief, that the war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply

Origins

light will be thrown on the origin of man