The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

—Charles Darwin

About Charles Darwin

Portrait of Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin ( DAR-win; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species have descended from a common ancestor is now accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint...

More quotations from Charles Darwin

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

—Charles Darwin

reason instinct

My mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years. Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
If I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness.

—Charles Darwin

I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.

—Charles Darwin

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.

—Charles Darwin

truth knowledge

It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

—Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man

ignorance knowledge science

More quotations tagged with “thoughts”

Only he is free who cultivates his own thoughts, and strives without fear to do justice to them.

—Berthold Auerbach

When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts.

—Anzia Yezierska

No man deserves punishment for his thoughts.

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.

—Albert Camus

A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.

—Joshua Reynolds

thoughts art decoration

History

11 Jul 2015 Added