John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 663
| Charles Robert Darwin. (1809–1882) |
| 6682 |
| I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection. |
| The Origin of Species. Chap. iii. |
| 6683 |
| We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. 1 |
| The Origin of Species. Chap. iii. |
| 6684 |
| The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. 2 |
| The Origin of Species. Chap. iii. |
| 6685 |
| Physiological experiment on animals is justifiable for real investigation, but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity. |
| Letter to E. Ray Lankester. |
| 6686 |
| I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them. |
| Remark cited in “Life.” |
| 6687 |
| As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities. |
| From Life and Letters. |
| 6688 |
| 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. |
| From Life and Letters. |
| Note 1. The perpetual struggle for room and food.—Malthus: On Population, chap. iii. p. 48 (1798). [back] |
| Note 2. This survival of the fittest which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called “natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.”—Herbert Spencer: Principles of Biology. Indirect Equilibration. [back] |