If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, … - Charles Darwin
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If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.
Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He proposed that evolution could be explained in part through natural and sexual selection. Prompted by awareness that Alfred Russel Wallace was developing similar theories he published his own sooner than he had originally intended. This theory is now an integral component of biological science.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Herbert Rose Barraud (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Birth Name:
Charles Robert Darwin
Alternative Names:
Charles R. Darwin
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C. R. Darwin
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Darwin
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C.R. Darwin
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CR Darwin
Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability; and we must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
We will now discuss in a little more detail the struggle for existence.
