The Quotable Darwin

About this book

Here is Charles Darwin in his own words – the naturalist, traveler, scientific thinker, and controversial author of On the Origin of Species, the book that shook the Victorian world. Featuring hundreds of quotations carefully selected by world-renowned Darwin biographer Janet Browne, The Quotable Darwin draws from Darwin's writings, letters to friends and family, autobiographical reminiscences, and private scientific notebooks. It offers a multifaceted portrait that takes readers through his youth, the famous voyage of the Beagle, the development of his thoughts about evolution, his gradual loss of religious faith, and the time spent turning his ideas into a well-articulated theory about the natural origin of all living beings – a theory that dangerously included the origin of humans.

The Quotable Darwin also includes many of the key responses to Darwin's ideas from figures across the social spectrum, scientists and nonscientists alike – and criticism too. We see Darwin as an innovative botanist and geologist, an affectionate husband and father, and a lively correspondent who once told his cousin that he liked to play billiards because "it drives the horrid species out of my head". This book gives us an intimate look at Darwin at work, at home, as a public figure, and on his travels.

Complete with a chronology of Darwin's life by Browne, The Quotable Darwin provides an engagingly fresh perspective on a remarkable man who was always thinking deeply about the natural world.

Contents

List of Illustrations   ix
Preface   xi
Acknowledgments   xix
Chronology   xxiii

Part 1: Early Life and Voyage of the Beagle Foundations   3
The Beagle Voyage   11
Geology   24
Slavery   30
Natural History Collecting   33
Indigenous Peoples   39
Galápagos Archipelago   45

Part 2: Marriage and Scientific Work Notes on Species   53
Marriage   59
A Theory by Which to Work   65
Children   73
Pigeons   80
Barnacles   84
Precursors   90
Independent Discoveries   97

Part 3: Origin of Species On the Origin of Species   107
Species   117
Selection   122
Difficulties   127
Design and Free Will   133
Variation and Heredity   138
Origin of Life   144
Survival of the Fittest   147
Responses to On the Origin of Species   150
Botany   165

Part 4: Mankind Human Origins   173
Race   181
Sexual Selection   185
Morality   190
Intellect   193
Instincts   198
Expression of the Emotions   202
Human Society   207

Part 5: On Himself Religious Belief   217
Health   226
Politics   232
Science   234
Writing   240
Dogs   244
Anti-vivisection   247
Nature   249
Autobiographical   253

Part 6: Friends and Family   261
Friends and Contemporaries   263
Reflections by His Contemporaries   275
Recollections by His Family   286
Tributes   298
Varia   303

Sources   307
Index   315

Customer Reviews

Biography

Janet Browne is the Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her books include the acclaimed two-volume biography of Darwin, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.