Charles Darwin

The greatest discovery of all is that the world is not as we thought it was.

The very existence of our senses, our reason, and our intellect, is a proof that these faculties were given us for some purpose.

No one can feel more strongly than I do the extreme difficulty of accounting for the origin of species.

I have been much struck by the fact that the more I have read about the subject, the less I have understood it.

The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.

I am not a man of much argument.

I have just finished my 'Origin,' and am now going to be a hermit for the rest of my life.

It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

I am a strong believer in the power of observation and the importance of collecting facts.

The more I see of the world, the more I am convinced of the fact that it is full of wonders.

I had no intention of writing an autobiography, but I found myself doing so.

I am almost convinced that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.

The greatest error of all is to stop at the first result.

I confess I am not much interested in the future, for I am too much occupied with the present.

Man, with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.