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evolution quotes

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“Evolution is a fact, not a theory.” Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“This preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“The occurrence of successive forms of life upon our globe is an historical fact, which cannot be disputed; and the relation of these successive forms, as stages of evolution of the same type, is established in various cases.” Thomas Henry Huxley, The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“It seems clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to new conditions to cause any great amount of variation; and that, when the organisation has once begun to vary, it generally continues varying for many generations.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself,...” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult—at least I found it so—than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“All the individuals of the same species, and all the species of the same genus, or even higher group, are descended from common parents” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Natural selection acts solely through the preservation of variations in some way advantageous, which consequently endure.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not in agreement.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Both in time and space species and groups of species have their points of maximum development.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“we humans have never been able to replicate something more complicated than what we ourselves are, yet natural selection did it without even thinking.” Linus Torvalds
“It is a fact of some importance to us, that peculiarities appearing in the males of our domestic breeds are often transmitted, either exclusively or in a much greater degree, to the males alone.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Some highly competent authorities are convinced that the setter is directly derived from the spaniel, and has probably been slowly altered from it.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
“A grain in the balance may determine which individuals shall live and which shall die—which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created, why should specific characters, or those by which the species of the same genus differ from each other, be more variable than the generic characters in which they all agree?” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Human beings didn’t evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing’s the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we’d be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.” Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
“Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
“even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever.” John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species
“Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.” Aristotle, Politics

Related topics

time religion simplicity species selection life humanity variation struggle theory creationism biology death mind nature intelligence beauty generations science change

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Charles Darwin (16)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
Carl Sagan (1)
Orson Scott Card (1)
John Green (1)
Aristotle (1)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1)
Linus Torvalds (1)
Thomas Henry Huxley (1)

Related sources

On The Origin of Species (16)
The Scarlet Letter (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)
Cosmos (1)
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1)
Politics (1)
The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century (1)
Ender's Game (1)