Charles Darwin Biography Quotes 30 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, into a family with strong intellectual and medical traditions. His father, Robert Waring Darwin, was a physician, and his paternal grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a prominent physician and natural philosopher whose writings explored ideas about transmutation of species. His mother, Susannah Wedgwood, died when he was young, and his older brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin, was an early companion in youthful scientific experiments. Intended at first for medicine, Darwin entered the University of Edinburgh in 1825 but found the surgical lectures grim and the formal curriculum uninspiring. He gravitated instead to natural history, learning from the comparative anatomist Robert Edmond Grant and participating in the Plinian Society. Encouraged by his father to pursue a different path, Darwin transferred to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1828, ostensibly to prepare for a clerical career. At Cambridge he fell under the mentorship of the botanist John Stevens Henslow and the geologist Adam Sedgwick, collected beetles with zeal, and absorbed the then-new uniformitarian geology of Charles Lyell.

The Voyage of the Beagle
Through Henslow's recommendation, Darwin joined HMS Beagle as a gentleman naturalist and companion to Captain Robert FitzRoy for a surveying voyage that began in late 1831 and would last nearly five years. The journey circumnavigated the globe, with extended work along the coasts of South America, visits to the Galapagos Islands, and stops in Australia and other locales. Darwin made meticulous geological observations in Patagonia and the Andes, examined fossils of giant extinct mammals in Argentina, and collected diverse plants, animals, and rocks. He read Lyell on board and came to interpret landscapes as the product of gradual processes. The Galapagos finches and mockingbirds, along with the varying tortoises, prompted questions about geographic variation and the possibility that species might change through time. Darwin returned to England in 1836 with thousands of specimens and a wealth of notes that would occupy him for years.

From Observations to Theory
Back in London, Darwin became part of a scientific circle that included Lyell and the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. He published works on geology, coral reefs, and the zoology of the Beagle collections, while quietly turning to the problem of species. By 1837 he began his transmutation notebooks, sketching genealogical connections among species. In 1838, reading Thomas Robert Malthus on population and resources, he realized that the struggle for existence could provide a mechanism: individuals with advantageous variations would be more likely to survive and reproduce. This insight crystallized the theory of natural selection. Darwin spent two decades amassing evidence from domestication, variation in nature, morphology, biogeography, and paleontology, corresponding widely with naturalists such as Asa Gray in the United States and conducting experiments in his home and garden.

Publication and Reception
Darwin delayed formal publication, working instead on barnacle monographs and other studies to establish credibility. In 1858, a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, independently outlining natural selection, spurred action. Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker arranged a joint presentation of Wallace's and Darwin's ideas at the Linnean Society in London on 1 July 1858. Darwin then rapidly prepared On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859. The book argued for descent with modification and proposed natural selection as the chief mechanism, presenting a cumulative argument drawn from variation under domestication, comparative anatomy, embryology, geographic distribution, and the fossil record. Reception was mixed but transformative. Thomas Henry Huxley emerged as a forceful defender, while figures such as Richard Owen raised technical objections. The debate with Bishop Samuel Wilberforce in 1860, in which Huxley famously took part, symbolized the cultural impact of Darwin's ideas, although Darwin himself was not present.

Personal Life and Health
Darwin married Emma Wedgwood, his cousin, in 1839. Their partnership was intellectually supportive and affectionate, and Emma's thoughtful religious convictions framed some of their most intimate discussions about science and faith. They had ten children; several suffered ill health, and the death of their daughter Anne (Annie) in 1851 was a devastating blow. Other children, including William, George, Francis, Leonard, and Horace, pursued distinguished careers. From the late 1830s onward, Darwin experienced chronic illness with recurrent symptoms such as fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, and skin problems. The cause remains uncertain, but the condition shaped his working habits. In 1842 the family moved to Down House in the village of Downe, Kent, where Darwin organized a disciplined routine, carried out garden and greenhouse experiments, and maintained an extensive correspondence.

Later Works and Continuing Research
After Origin, Darwin extended and refined his ideas in a series of books. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868) gathered vast data on breeding and proposed pangenesis as a provisional hypothesis of heredity. The Descent of Man (1871) applied evolutionary reasoning to human origins and sexual selection, a concept he had developed to explain traits like ornamentation and display. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) examined continuity in behavior and facial expression. Earlier, his study On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects (1862) had shown how intricate floral structures evolved through natural selection. He also authored works on climbing plants, cross- and self-fertilization, the power of movement in plants, insectivorous plants, and, late in life, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), which highlighted the profound but often overlooked effects of ordinary organisms.

Networks, Influence, and Method
Darwin's method combined careful observation, experiment, and broad synthesis. He relied on a global network of correspondents and collaborators. Joseph Hooker provided botanical expertise and friendship; Alfred Russel Wallace remained a generous colleague; Asa Gray helped introduce evolutionary ideas to American audiences; and Charles Lyell, though cautious about natural selection, supported Darwin personally and professionally. He sometimes found himself at odds with Richard Owen over anatomical interpretations, and he respected, yet debated, critics who questioned natural selection's explanatory scope. Darwin's notes and letters reveal an ongoing effort to test hypotheses, to consider alternative explanations, and to revise his views in light of new evidence.

Final Years and Legacy
Darwin continued to work at Down House into his seventies, punctuating research with walks along his Sandwalk path. He died there on 19 April 1882. Although he had lived a private life removed from public spectacles, public and scientific recognition of his achievement was immense. At the urging of friends and colleagues, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, near Isaac Newton and John Herschel, a sign of the esteem in which he was held. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection reshaped biology by providing a unifying framework for understanding diversity and adaptation. It influenced fields from geology and paleontology to psychology and anthropology, and it transformed how people thought about the living world and humanity's place within it. The patient, cumulative reasoning that characterized his work, and the community of scientists and family who supported him, remain integral to the story of a life that changed modern science.

Our collection contains 30 quotes who is written by Charles, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Ethics & Morality - Truth - Justice - Friendship.

Other people realated to Charles: Thomas Huxley (Scientist), Lord Kelvin (Scientist), Luther Burbank (Environmentalist), Charles Kingsley (Clergyman), Jacques Barzun (Educator), William Graham Sumner (Businessman), Ellen Key (Writer), Harriet Martineau (Writer), Jean Henri Fabre (Author), Chauncey Wright (Philosopher)

• 1872 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Book)
• 1871 The Descent of Man (Book)
• 1868 The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (Book)
• 1859 On the Origin of Species (Book)
• 1839 The Voyage of the Beagle (Book)

• Wikipedia