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

But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animal, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?

On your life, underestimating the proclivities of finches is likely to lead to great internal hemorrhaging.

I was a young man with uninformed 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.

Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on this earth.

The most energetic workers I have encountered in my world travels are the vegetarian miners of Chile.

All that at present can be said with certainty, is that, as with the individual, so with the species, the hour of life has run its course, ans is spent.

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it.

I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

Two distinct elements are included under the term inheritance-- the transmission, and the development of characters;.

We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it.

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives -- of approving of some and disapproving of others.

Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pressure of the acutest grief; whereas in some parts of the Continent the men shed tears much more readily and freely.

July 24th, 1833.--The Beagle sailed from Maldonado, and on August the 3rd she arrived off the mouth of the Rio Negro.

Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life.

Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science.

It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original.

Light may be shed on man and his origins.

On seeing the marsupials in Australia for the first time and comparing them to placental mammals: An unbeliever ... might exclaim Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work.

Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject my theory.