"The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination." (Charles Darwin, "Journal of Researches Into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle: Under the Command of Captain FitzRoy, R. N., from 1832-6", 1836)
"One has, however, no business to feel so much surprise of one’s ignorance, when one knows how impossible it is without statistics to conjecture the duration of life and percentage of deaths to births in mankind." (Charles R Darwin, 1845)
"[…] for as all organic beings are striving, it may be said, to seize on each place in the economy of nature, if any one species does not become modified and improved in a corresponding degree with its competitors, it will soon be exterminated." (Charles Darwin, "On the Origin of Species", 1859)
"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, "On the Origin of Species", 1859)
"It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction" (Charles Darwin, "The Origin of Species", 1859)
"Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life. " (Charles Darwin, "On the Origin of Species", 1859)
"Each organic being is striving to increase in a geometrical ratio [...] each at some period of its life, during some season of the year, during each generation or at intervals has to struggle for life and to suffer great destruction. [...]The vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply." (Charles R. Darwin, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural", 1860)
"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, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", 1866)
"In scientific investigations, it is permitted to invent any hypothesis and, if it explains various large and independent classes of facts, it rises to the ranks of a well-grounded theory." (Charles Darwin, "The Variations of Animals and Plants Under Domestication" Vol. 1, 1868)
"I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design, or indeed of design of any kind, in the details." (Charles Darwin, [Letter to Joseph D Hooker, 1870)
"The imagination is one of the highest prerogatives of man. By this faculty he unites, independently of the will, former images and ideas, and thus creates brilliant and novel results […] The value of the products of our imagination depends of course on the number, accuracy, and clearness of our impressions; on our judgment and taste in selecting or rejecting the involuntary combinations, and to a certain extent on our power of voluntarily combining them." (Charles Darwin, "The Descent of Man", 1874)
"In scientific investigations, it is permitted to invent any hypothesis and, if it explains various large and independent classes of facts, it rises to the ranks of a well-grounded theory." (Charles Darwin, "The Variations of Animals and Plants Under Domestication" Vol. 1, 1896)
"[…] to kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact." (Charles R Darwin, "More Letters of Charles Darwin", Vol 2, 1903)
"An unverified hypothesis is of little or not value; but if any one should hereafter be led to make observations by which some such hypothesis could be established, I shall have done good service, as an astonishing number of isolated facts can be thus connected together and rendered intelligible." (Charles Darwin)
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