103 Origin Of Species Quotes

Following is our list of origin of species quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about on the origin of species evolution.

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Famous Origin Of Species Quotes

My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted. — Steven Wright

We are born of risen apes, not fallen angels. — Robert Ardrey

What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature! — Charles Darwin

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. - Theodosius Dobzhansky

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. — Theodosius Dobzhansky

The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. — Richard Dawkins

Most species do their own evolving, making it up as they go along, which is the way Nature intended. — Terry Pratchett

The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith? — Charles Darwin

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. — Charles Darwin

All the ills from which America suffers can be traced back to the teaching of evolution. It would be better to destroy every other book ever written, and save just the first three verses of Genesis. — William Jennings Bryan

We owe our existence to innovation. Our species exists thanks to four billion years of genetic innovation. — Gary Hamel

The fact -- not theory -- that evolution has occurred and the Darwinian theory as to how it occurred have become so confused in popular opinion that the distinction must be stressed. — George Gaylord Simpson

We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. — Charles Darwin

Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable. — Arthur Keith

I'm the product of 6 million years of evolution? Come on, man. I crawled out of a swamp yesterday. — Peter Steele

Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation. — Christopher Hitchens

Short Origin Of Species Quotes

  • Evolution is your solution. — Triple H
  • Evolution is so creative. That's how we got giraffes. — Kurt Vonnegut
  • The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins. — Ben Jonson
  • Ordinary speciation remains fully adequate to explain the causes and phenomenology of punctuation. — Stephen Jay Gould

Origin Of Species Image Quotes

Origin of species quote You were born an original. Don't die a copy.
You were born an original. Don't die a copy.

On The Origin Of Species Quotes

Sir Julian Huxley, one of the world's leading evolutionists, head of UNESCO, descendant of Thomas Huxley - Darwin's bulldog - said on a talk show, 'I suppose the reason we leaped at The Origin of Species was because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.'. — Julian Huxley

A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." Charles Darwin — Charles Darwin

Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life! — Charles Darwin

Origin of species quote All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.
All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.

... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed. — Charles Darwin

When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly forsee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. — Charles Darwin

Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. — Charles Darwin

Origin of species quote Never change your originality for the sake of others. Because no one can play your role better than
Never change your originality for the sake of others. Because no one can play your role better than you.

The discovery informs about the origins and early evolution of arthropods, the most ubiquitous, species-rich, morphologically diverse and successful animal group on Earth. — Benjamin Van Roy

I believe the deeply rooted semantic confusion between 'man' as a male and 'man' as a species has been fed back into and vitiated a great deal of the speculation that goes on about the origins, development, and nature of the human race. — Elaine Morgan

It occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made of this question (the origin of the species) by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it — Charles Darwin

Origin Of Man Quotes

Accept your place in the sun as it was originally before the creation of this world... The black man is the first and last, maker and owner of the universe. — Elijah Muhammad

Just being a woman is God's gift. The origin of a child is a mother, a woman. She shows a man what sharing, caring, and loving is all about. That is the essence of a woman. — Sushmita Sen

Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man. — Thomas Paine

Origin of species quote The mind that opens up to a new idea never returns to its original size.
The mind that opens up to a new idea never returns to its original size.

Mr. Lincoln was not only a great President, but a great man - too great to be small in anything. In his company I was never in any way reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color. — Frederick Douglass

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. — Oscar Wilde

It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. — Herman Melville

Origin of species quote Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware
Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this is Nature he's destroying is this God he's worshiping.

If slavery be a sin, it is not yours. It does not rest on your action for its origin, on your consent for its existence. It is a common law right to property in the service of man; its origin was Divine decree. — Jefferson Davis

In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. — Charles Darwin

The mutual-aid tendency in man has so remote an origin, and is so deeply interwoven with all the past evolution of the human race, that is has been maintained by mankind up to the present time, notwithstanding all vicissitudes of history. — Peter Kropotkin

Suppose Mozart had tried to be original? It would have been like a man at the North Pole trying to walk north, and this is true of all of the rest of us. Striving after originality takes you far away from your true self, and makes your work mediocre. — Keith Johnstone

Theory Of Evolution Quotes

Take the rose—most people think it very beautiful: I don’t care for It at all. I prefer the cactus, for the simple reason that it has a more interesting personality. It has wonderfully adapted itself to its surroundings! It is the best illustration of the theory of evolution in plant life. — Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles. — James D. Watson

In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment. — Charles Darwin

Origin of species quote It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most resp
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

We have long been seeking a different kind of evolutionary process and have now found one; namely, the change within the pattern of the chromosomes. ... The neo-Darwinian theory of the geneticists is no longer tenable. — Richard Goldschmidt

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. — Charles Darwin

The theory of evolution, like the theory of gravity, is a scientific fact. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

Origin of species quote Never be afraid to be yourself. Remember an original is worth more than a copy.
Never be afraid to be yourself. Remember an original is worth more than a copy.

Nowhere was Darwin able to point to one bona fide case of natural selection having actually generated evolutionary change in nature....Ultimately, the Darwinian theory of evolution is no more nor less than the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century. — Michael Denton

The worst censors are those prohibiting criticism of the theory of evolution in the classroom. — Phyllis Schlafly

Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved — Charles Darwin

Evolution is the creation-myth of our age. By telling us our origin it shapes our views of what we are. It influences not just our thought, but our feelings and actions too, in a way which goes far beyond its official function as a biological theory. — Mary Midgley

Biological Evolution Quotes

If the origin of life is the origin of evolution & nothing comes before life then we are indeed stuck. I don’t think we need to be. Let’s shed the dogma, ego, & closed minds & ask the question clearly. How do we detect the onset of evolution BEFORE biology? — Lee Cronin

The consciousness of lucid dreaming is a cultural evolution. It's something that we are talking about and learning about, not biological evolution. — Stephen LaBerge

I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution , where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multicolored drops that gleam for a moment... only to vanish forever. — Alan Watts

Origin of species quote It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

These systems are the product of evolution, optimized by evolution for a world which no longer exists; it is not surprising then that, however capable our cognitive apparatus is, it too often fails when challenged by tasks completely alien to its biological roots. — Annie Jacobsen

So in my freshman year at the University of Alabama, learning the literature on evolution, what was known about it biologically, just gradually transformed me by taking me out of literalism and increasingly into a more secular, scientific view of the world. — E. O. Wilson

If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity. — Richard Dawkins

Origin of species quote You were born an original. Don't die a copy !
You were born an original. Don't die a copy !

We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation. — Carl Sagan

All scientists agree that evolution has occurred-that all life comes from a common ancestry, that there has been extinction, and that new taxa, new biological groups, have arisen. The question is, is natural selection enough to explain evolution? Is it the driver of evolution? — Lynn Margulis

Our task now is to resynthesize biology; put the organism back into its environment; connect it again to its evolutionary past; and let us feel that complex flow that is organism, evolution, and environment united. The time has come for biology to enter the nonlinear world. — Carl Woese

Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology. — Theodosius Dobzhansky

People Writing About Origin Of Species

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Read quotes by Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin
quotes on change, evolution and natural selection

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Read quotes by Steven Wright

Steven Wright
quotes on life, work

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Read quotes by Robert Ardrey

Robert Ardrey
quotes on leadership, freedom and education

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Read quotes by Theodosius Dobzhansky

Theodosius Dobzhansky
quotes on education, religion and world

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Read quotes by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins
quotes on life, creation and intelligent design

665 4628
Read quotes by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett
quotes on death, life and death and writing

1387 5273

More Origin Of Species Quotes

An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human. — Man Ray

There are certain books in the world which every searcher for truth must know: the Bible, the Critique of Pure Reason, the Origin of Species, and Karl Marx's Capital. — W. E. B. Du Bois

Darwin's theory of evolution is a framework by which we understand the diversity of life on Earth. But there is no equation sitting there in Darwin's 'Origin of Species' that you apply and say, 'What is this species going to look like in 100 years or 1,000 years?' Biology isn't there yet with that kind of predictive precision. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

Origin of species quote Music is the original social media.
Music is the original social media.

There are certain books in the world which every searcher for truth must know: the Bible, the Critique of Pure Reason, the Origin of Species, and Karl Marx's Capital. — Al Capp

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week. — Charles Darwin

Origin of species quote You are the universe, expressing itself as a human for a lit
You are the universe, expressing itself as a human for a little while.

Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure. — Charles Darwin

When students of other sciences ask us what is now currently believed about the origin of species, we have no clear answer to give. Faith has given way to agnosticism. Meanwhile, though our faith in evolution stands unshaken we have no acceptable account of the origin of species. — William Bateson

Great is the power of steady misrepresentation — Charles Darwin

The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. — Charles Darwin

I love to read, and so I've been reading everything I can, not intensely, but I love to read so I read "Origin of Species" by Darwin and I can't make head or tail of E=MC squared by Einstein, but I try to baffle my way through that. — Anthony Hopkins

To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree — Charles Darwin

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 canon, if we look only to the present inhabitants of the world, is not strictly correct, but if we include all those of past times, it must by my theory be strictly true. — Charles Darwin

I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable. — Charles Darwin

Many of the medicines we use today, to fight everything from AIDS to cancer, originate as a toxin in an amphibian skin. When we lose these animals, we lose resources. We lose keystone species in the environments where they live. — Jeff Corwin

I think it inevitably follows, that as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most. — Charles Darwin

As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection. — Charles Darwin

From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows. — Charles Darwin

It will be possible, through the detailed determination of amino-acid sequences of hemoglobin molecules and of other molecules too, to obtain much information about the course of the evolutionary process, and to illuminate the question of the origin of species. — Linus Pauling

It is a truly wonderful fact - the wonder of which we are apt to overlook from familiarity - that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in group subordinate to group. — Charles Darwin

... why are so many religious people arguing about the origin of the species but so few concerned about the extinction of the species? — Brian D. McLaren

...for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear. — Charles Darwin

Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have found it so--than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind. — Charles Darwin

... not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. — Charles Darwin

Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms. — Charles Darwin

It has sometimes been said that the success of the Origin proved "that the subject was in the air," or "that men's minds were prepared for it." I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species. — Charles Darwin

For millennia the two-million acre redwood ecosystem thrived and sheltered myriad species of life. In the last 150 years, 97 percent of the original redwood forests have been destroyed by timber corporations. ... Big business cut-and-run logging operations have instilled a false dichotomy: jobs versus the environment. — Julia Hill

We behold the face of nature bright with gladness. — Charles Darwin

One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die. — Charles Darwin

In laying hands upon the sacred ark of absolute permanency, in treating the forms that had been regarded as types of fixity and perfection as originating and passing away, the Origin of Species introduced a mode of thinking that in the end was bound to transform the logic of knowledge, and hence the treatment of morals, politics, and religion. — John Dewey

When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. — Charles Darwin

We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. — Charles Darwin

Already at the origin of the species man was equal to what he was destined to become. — Jean Rostand

Mere chance ... alone would never account for so habitual and large an amount of difference as that between varieties of the same species. — Charles Darwin

Every true poet, I thought, must be original and originality a condition of poetic genius; so that each poet is like a species in nature (not an individuum genericum or specificum ) and can never recur. That nothing shd. be old or borrowed however cannot be. — Gerard Manley Hopkins

For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question. — Charles Darwin

The ecstatic state of wholeness is bound to be transient because it has no part in the total pattern of ‘adaptation through maladaptation’ which is characteristic of our species…the hunger of imagination, the desire and pursuit of the whole, take origin from the realization that something is missing, from awareness of incompleteness. — Anthony Storr

Without knowing it, we utilize hundreds of products each day that owe their origin to wild animals and plants. Indeed our welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of wildlife. Well may conservationists proclaim that by saving the lives of wild species, we may be saving our own. — Norman Myers

In fact, evolution became in a sense a scientific religion; almost all scientists have accepted it and many are prepared to "bend" their observations to fit in with it. — Henry Lipson

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