Charles Darwin

1809–1882 · English naturalist · author of On the Origin of Species

Charles Robert Darwin was the English naturalist whose 1859 On the Origin of Species established evolution by natural selection. His actual prose is careful and hedged; he did not coin slogans about the “fittest” winning — the phrase “survival of the fittest” itself was Herbert Spencer’s, which Darwin only later adopted. Because his name is shorthand for evolution, tidy motivational lines summarizing his ideas are routinely pinned on him.

Traced to source

2 quotes we’ve traced to Charles Darwin

“A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there”

Disputed

“In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment”

Disputed

Not actually Charles Darwin

Often misattributed to Charles Darwin

Famous lines widely pinned on Charles Darwin that we’ve traced to someone else.

“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”

actually “Lady Hope” (Elizabeth Reid Cotton)

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”

actually Leon C. Megginson (paraphrasing Darwin)

“The Creator has an inordinate fondness for beetles”

actually J.B.S. Haldane

“The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact”

actually Thomas Henry Huxley

On the research bench

Commonly pinned on Charles Darwin — under review

1 line flagged as pinned on Charles Darwin and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.

“Survival of the fittest”

Queued

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