Karol Darwin cytaty strona 4

„Dlatego, zarówno w czasie jak i w przestrzeni, wydaje się, że zbliżamy się do tego wielkiego zdarzenia – tajemnicy tajemnic – pierwszego ukazania się nowych istot na tej ziemi.”

ostatnie słowa.

„Wstydliwość – to najbardziej charakterystyczna i najbardziej ludzka z ludzkich cech.”

Źródło: Podróż na okręcie „Beagle”

„Gdyby na powierzchni ziemi nie było wcale owadów, rośliny nasze nie byłyby obsypane pięknymi kwiatami, ale miałyby takie skromne kwiaty, jakie widzimy u sosny, dębu, leszczyny, jesionu, traw, szpinaku, szczawiu, pokrzywy i innych roślin zapylanych za pomocą wiatru.”

„Jeśliby można było wykazać, że istnieje jakikolwiek narząd złożony, który nie mógłby być utworzony na drodze licznych, następujących po sobie, drobnych przekształceń – teoria moja musiałaby absolutnie upaść.”

O powstawaniu gatunków drogą doboru naturalnego (1859)
Źródło: przeł. Sz. Dickstein, J. Nusbaum, wyd. Altaya, Warszawa 2001, str. 218.

„Rozprawienie się z błędem przynosi równe, a czasem nawet większe korzyści, niż odkrycie nowej prawdy lub faktu.”

O powstawaniu gatunków drogą doboru naturalnego (1859)
Źródło: wyd. PWRiL, Warszawa 1959, str. 183

„(…) jeśli (i ach! cóż to za jeśli!) moglibyśmy wyobrazić sobie jakąś niedużą, ciepłą sadzawkę, gdzie obecne są wszystkie sole zawierające amoniak i fosfor, a także światło, ciepło, elektryczność i temu podobne, i że utworzył się w niej poprzez reakcję chemiczną związek białkowy, gotów do jeszcze bardziej skomplikowanych zmian (…).”

„Książka Darwina (O powstawaniu gatunków) zburzyła te wyobrażenia. Usunęła Boga – dobrotliwego, troskliwego Boga – z tego obrazu. Usunęła także ideę celowego, obowiązującego raz na zawsze projektu. Twierdziła natomiast, że żywe istoty ciągle się zmieniają, ewoluują: za cenę krwi i cierpień przekształcane są przez bezwzględne siły przyrody.”

Źródło: Jostein Gaarder, Świat Zofii. Cudowna podróż w głąb historii filozofii, Warszawa 1995, tłum. Iwona Zimnicka, s. 455.

„Dla każdego człowieka to przekleństwo dać się tak pochłonąć jakiemukolwiek przedmiotowi, jak mnie pochłania moja praca.”

Autorka: Anna Sproule, Karol Darwin. O tym, jak teoria ewolucji całkowicie zmieniła nasz pogląd na historię naturalną, przeł.A. Podzielna, A. Toth, wyd. Czytelnik, Warszawa 1991, str. 13.

„Chociaż wiele rzeczy jest i długo jeszcze pozostanie niewyjaśnionych, to jednak na podstawie najskrupulatniejszych badań i najbezstronniejszego sądu, do jakiego jestem zdolny, nie wątpię bynajmniej, że pogląd wyznawany dotychczas przez większość przyrodników i podzielany dawniej przeze mnie, a mianowicie, że każdy gatunek został stworzony oddzielnie, jest błędny. Jestem całkowicie przekonany, że gatunki są zmienne i że gatunki należące do jednego tak zwanego rodzaju są w prostej linii potomkami jakiegoś innego, zazwyczaj wygasłego gatunku. Jestem prócz tego przekonany, że dobór naturalny był najważniejszym, chociaż nie wyłącznym czynnikiem przekształcania gatunków.”

„Każdy wieloryb ma swoją wesz.”

O powstawaniu gatunków drogą doboru naturalnego (1859)
Źródło: przeł. Sz. Dickstein, J. Nusbaum, wyd. Altaya, Warszawa 2001, str.7.

„Uwielbiam głupie eksperymenty, zawsze je wykonuję.”

“The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the belief that man is descended from some lower form; but this objection will not appear of much weight to those who, convinced by general reasons, believe in the general principle of evolution. Breaks incessantly occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, sharp and defined, others less so in various degrees; as between the orang and its nearest allies—between the Tarsius and the other Lemuridæ—between the elephant and in a more striking manner between the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, and other mammals. But all these breaks depend merely on the number of related forms which have become extinct. At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as at present between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.”

I love fools' experiments; I am always making them. (ang.)

Karol Darwin: Cytaty po angielsku

“I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.”

Charles Darwin książka The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter VI: "On the Affinities and Genealogy of Man", pages 200-201 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=213&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image The sentence "At some future period … the savage races" is often quoted out of context to suggest that Darwin desired this outcome, whereas in fact Darwin simply held that it would occur. The Descent of Man (1871)

“[Y]ou have expressed my inward conviction, though far more vividly and clearly than I could have done, that the Universe is not the result of chance. … Lastly, I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilization than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risk the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.”

recollection http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F2113&viewtype=text&pageseq=7 by E. Ray Lankester, from his essay "Charles Robert Darwin" in C.D. Warner, editor, Library of the World's Best Literature: Ancient and Modern (R.S. Peale & J.A. Hill, New York, 1896) volume 2, pages 4835-4393, at page 4391 Other letters, notebooks, journal articles, recollected statements

“As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.”

volume I, chapter VIII: "Religion", page 316 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=334&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image; letter to William Graham (3 July 1881) The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

“There should be open competition for all men; and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Important as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is concerned there are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities are advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, the reasoning powers, instruction, religion, &c., than through natural selection; though to this latter agency the social instincts, which afforded the basis for the development of the moral sense, may be safely attributed.”

volume I, chapter VIII: "Religion", page 307 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=325&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image; letter to an unidentified German student (1879) The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

“Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. To those who fully admit the immortality of the human soul, the destruction of our world will not appear so dreadful.”

Charles Darwin książka The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume II, chapter XXI: "General Summary and Conclusion", pages 403-404 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=420&itemID=F937.2&viewtype=image The Descent of Man (1871)

“I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.

Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants have descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless all living things have much in common, in their chemical composition, their germinal vesicles, their cellular structure, and their laws of growth and reproduction. We see this even in so trifling a circumstance as that the same poison often similarly affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gall-fly produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak-tree. Therefore I should infer from analogy that 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 by the Creator.”

volume I, chapter VIII: "Religion", page 312 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=330&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

“I think it can be shown that there is such an unerring power at work in Natural Selection (the title of my book), which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being.”

Charles Darwin książka On the Origin of Species (1859)

Źródło: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter XIV: "Recapitulation and Conclusion", page 484 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=505&itemID=F376&viewtype=side, in the second (1860) edition

“The subject may appear an insignificant one, but we shall see that it possesses some interest; and the maxim "de minimis lex non curat," does not apply to science.”

Darwin's first published expression of the concept of natural selection. "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection" Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London: Zoology (read 1 July 1853; published 20 August 1858) volume 3, pages 45-62, at page 51 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=7&itemID=F350&viewtype=image Other letters, notebooks, journal articles, recollected statements

“We will now discuss in a little more detail the struggle for existence.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Introduction, p. 2. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=17&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image de minimis non curat lex - The law does not concern itself with trifles. The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881)

“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, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.”

Charles Darwin książka On the Origin of Species (1859)

Compare: "this perpetual struggle for room and food", The Reverend Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) section III.7 http://www.econlib.org/library/Malthus/malPop2.html#III.7. Źródło: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter III: "Struggle For Existence", page 62 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=77&itemID=F373&viewtype=image

“In conclusion, it appears to me that nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in distant countries. It both sharpens, and partly likewise allays that want and craving, which, as Sir J. Herschel remarks, a man experiences although every corporeal sense is fully satisfied. The excitement from the novelty of objects, and the chance of success, stimulate him to increased activity. Moreover as a number of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the habit of comparison leads to generalization. On the other hand, as the traveller stays but a short space of time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches, instead of detailed observation. Hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide gaps of knowledge, by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses.”

Charles Darwin książka On the Origin of Species (1859)

"Introduction", page 5 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=20&itemID=F373&viewtype=image On the Origin of Species (1859)

“Looking not to any one time, but to all time, if my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all the species of the same group together, must assuredly have existed; but the very process of natural selection constantly tends, as has been so often remarked, to exterminate the parent forms and the intermediate links. Consequently evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains”

Charles Darwin książka The Voyage of the Beagle

Źródło: The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), chapter XXIII: "Mauritius To England", pages 607-608 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=626&itemID=F10.3&viewtype=image

“With respect to the function of the calciferous glands, it is probable that they primarily serve as organs of excretion, and secondarily as an aid to digestion.”

Charles Darwin książka On the Origin of Species (1859)

. Źródło: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter VI: "Difficulties on Theory", page 179 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=197&itemID=F373&viewtype=side

“The comparison here implied between the actions of one of the higher animals and of one so low in the scale as an earth-worm, may appear far-fetched; for we thus attribute to the worm attention and some mental power, nevertheless I can see no reason to doubt the justice of the comparison.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Źródło: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 49. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=64&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

“I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Źródło: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, pp. 24-25. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=39&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

“Fitz-Roy's temper was a most unfortunate one. It was usually worst in the early morning, and with his eagle eye he could generally detect something amiss about the ship, and was then unsparing in his blame. He was very kind to me, but was a man very difficult to live with on the intimate terms which necessarily followed from our messing by ourselves in the same cabin. We had several quarrels; for instance, early in the voyage at Bahia, in Brazil, he defended and praised slavery, which I abominated, and told me that he had just visited a great slave-owner, who had called up many of his slaves and asked them whether they were happy, and whether they wished to be free, and all answered "No." I then asked him, perhaps with a sneer, whether he thought that the answer of slaves in the presence of their master was worth anything? This made him excessively angry, and he said that as I doubted his word we could not live any longer together. I thought that I should have been compelled to leave the ship; but as soon as the news spread, which it did quickly, as the captain sent for the first lieutenant to assuage his anger by abusing me, I was deeply gratified by receiving an invitation from all the gun-room officers to mess with them. But after a few hours Fitz-Roy showed his usual magnanimity by sending an officer to me with an apology and a request that I would continue to live with him.”

Charles Darwin książka On the Origin of Species (1859)

Źródło: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter III: "Struggle For Existence", page 62 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=77&itemID=F373&viewtype=image

“Earth-worms abound in England in many different stations. Their castings may be seen in extraordinary numbers on commons and chalk-downs, so as almost to cover the whole surface, where the soil is poor and the grass short and thin.”

volume I, chapter II: "Autobiography", pages 60-61 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=78&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

“My object in this chapter is solely to shew that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Źródło: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 9. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=24&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

“The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children. Even insects play together, as has been described by that excellent observer, P. Huber, who saw ants chasing and pretending to bite each other, like so many puppies.
The fact that the lower animals are excited by the same emotions as ourselves is so well established, that it will not be necessary to weary the reader by many details. Terror acts in the same manner on them as on us, causing the muscles to tremble, the heart to palpitate, the sphincters to be relaxed, and the hair to stand on end. Suspicion, the offspring of fear, is eminently characteristic of most wild animals. Courage and timidity are extremely variable qualities in the individuals of the same species, as is plainly seen in our dogs. Some dogs and horses are ill-tempered and easily turn sulky; others are good-tempered; and these qualities are certainly inherited.”

Charles Darwin książka The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter II: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals", page 35 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=48&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image The Descent of Man (1871)

“It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant.”

Charles Darwin książka The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter II: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals", pages 39-40 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=52&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image The Descent of Man (1871)

“When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its burrow—to use the expression employed by a friend—we are at first led to look at the action as a reflex one.”

Charles Darwin książka The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter VII: "On the Races of Man", page 225 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=238&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image The Descent of Man (1871)

“I have attempted to write the following account of myself, as if I were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life. Nor have I found this difficult, for life is nearly over with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Źródło: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 23. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=38&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

“M. Perrier found that their exposure to the dry air of a room for only a single night was fatal to them. On the other hand he kept several large worms alive for nearly four months, completely submerged in water.”

volume I, chapter II: "Autobiography", page 27 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=45&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)

“There is good evidence that the art of shooting with bows and arrows has not been handed down from any common progenitor of mankind, yet the stone arrow-heads, brought from the most distant parts of the world and manufactured at the most remote periods, are, as Nilsson has shewn, almost identical; and this fact can only be accounted for by the various races having similar inventive or mental powers.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Źródło: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, pp. 12-13 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=27&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image.

“Every morning during certain seasons of the year, the thrushes and blackbirds on all the lawns throughout the country draw out of their holes an astonishing number of worms; and this they could not do, unless they lay close to the surface.”

Charles Darwin książka The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter VII: "On the Races of Man", pages 232-233 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=245&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image The Descent of Man (1871)

“I assume that cells, before their conversion into completely passive or "formed material," throw off minute granules or atoms, which circulate freely throughout the system, and when supplied with proper nutriment multiply by self-division, subsequently becoming developed into cells like those from which they were derived. These granules for the sake of distinctness may be called … gemmules. They are supposed to be transmitted from the parents to the offspring, and are generally developed in the generation which immediately succeeds, but are often transmitted in a dormant state during many generations and are then developed. Their development is supposed to depend on their union with other partially developed cells or gemmules which precede them in the regular course of growth. … Lastly, I assume that the gemmules in their dormant state have a mutual affinity for each other, leading to their aggregation either into buds or into the sexual elements. … These assumptions constitute the provisional hypothesis which I have called Pangenesis.”

Charles Darwin książka The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Źródło: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 16. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=31&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

“I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything, and to my astonishment, the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.”

Charles Darwin książka The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication

volume II, chapter XXVII: "Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis", page 374 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=389&itemID=F877.2&viewtype=image It is sometimes claimed that modern biologist are dogmatic "Darwinists" who uncritically accept all of Darwin's ideas. This is false: No one today accepts Darwin's hypothesis of gemmules and pangenesis. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868)

“The main difficulty in using either lazo or bolas, is to ride so well, as to be able at full speed, and while suddenly turning about, to whirl them so steadily round the head, as to take aim: on foot any person would soon learn the art. One day, as I was amusing myself by galloping and whirling the balls round my head, by accident the free one struck a bush; and its revolving motion being thus destroyed, it immediately fell to the ground, and like magic caught one hind leg of my horse; the other ball was then jerked out of my hand, and the horse fairly secured. Luckily he was an old practised animal, and knew what it meant; otherwise he would probably have kicked till he had thrown himself down. The Gauchos roared with laughter; they cried they had seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by himself.”

Attributed to Darwin in another version of the Lady Hope fabrication.
Misattributed

“I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before, not even a Sailor in a slow-sailing ship.”

Charles Darwin książka The Voyage of the Beagle

Źródło: The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), chapter III: "Montevideo — Maldonado, etc.", page 51 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=70&itemID=F11&viewtype=image