Charles Darwin

"I have not had time to work up my notes, so I cannot write the discussion in the form that I should wish."

"As I am not able to look through all my books, which are packed away, I cannot give you all the references which I should wish to do."

"Slow, steady progress is perhaps more important than rapid discoveries."

"The day when I made my observations on the flora of the island was one of great interest."

"I cannot believe that there exists a man so cruel as to be capable of treating an animal cruelly."

"Each strain and struggle in life is gradually becoming of less and less consequence to my mind."

"Everything in life becomes clearer with reflection and thought."

"The great question which I have continually pondered is the nature of consciousness."

"It is instructive to observe the manner in which naturalists have been led to their conclusions."

"I have always maintained that one's greatest chance of success lies in striving to excel in one's chosen pursuit."

"The beautiful adaptations we see in nature did not arise all at once."

"A traveler ought to be a botanist, for in every country he advances through, he will find objects of interest."

"I am convinced that a single body stroke of misfortune often proves the cure for a great many minor evils."

"The mind responds most favorably to evidence that is gradually and thoughtfully presented."

"Man tends to impose order upon things which are really quite chaotic in nature."

"The ability to enjoy simple pleasures is perhaps the greatest gift nature can bestow."

"I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the parasitic wasp."

"The formation of different languages and of distinct species are curiously parallel phenomena."

"I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions."

"The chief cause of every classification must be genealogy."

"It appears to me that nothing can be more improved than the condition of the working classes."

"Every structure and instinct every shade and habit, every extinct form and embryonic condition tells one story."

"The variety which abounds in nature seems to delight in the multiplicity of its forms."

"It is those who have not reflected much upon these subjects who feel the need for a creator."

"I have deeply regretted that I did not keep full notes on the facts of distributions of all the animals which I observed."

"The problem of the origin of life itself lies entirely outside the province of science."

"What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel works of nature."

"It is remarkable how readily I fell into the practice of recording the details of daily life in my journal."

"The descent of man is no more derogatory to him than the descent of any other mammal."

"From the most humble and obscure to the most exalted and celebrated, all living things follow these same fundamental laws."