The Quotable Darwin

by Janet Browne

  Autobiography, 100–101

  James Mackintosh: One of my autumnal visits to Maer in 1827 was memorable from meeting there Sir J. Mackintosh, who was the best converser I ever listened to. I heard afterwards with a glow of pride that he had said, “There is something in that young man that interests me.” This must have been chiefly due to his perceiving that I listened with much interest to everything which he said, for I was as ignorant as a pig about his subjects of history, politicks and moral philosophy. To hear of praise from an eminent person, though no doubt apt or certain to excite vanity, is, I think, good for a young man, as it helps to keep him in the right course.

  Autobiography, 55

  Richard Owen: It is painful to be hated in the intense degree with which Owen hates me.

  Darwin to Charles Lyell,

  10 April [1860], DCP 2754

  John Ruskin: It was very acute of Mr Ruskin to know that I have a deep & tender interest about the brightly coloured hinder half of certain monkeys.

  Darwin to Victor A.E.G. Marshall,

  7 [September] 1879,

  quoted in Healey 2001, 306

  Herbert Spencer: Herbert Spencer’s conversation seemed to me very interesting, but I did not like him particularly, and did not feel that I could easily have become intimate with him. I think that he was extremely egotistical. After reading any of his books, I generally feel enthusiastic admiration for his transcendent talents, and have often wondered whether in the distant future he would rank with such great men as Descartes, Leibnitz, etc., about whom, however, I know very little. Nevertheless I am not conscious of having profited in my own work by Spencer’s writings. His deductive manner of treating every subject is wholly opposed to my frame of mind. His conclusions never convince me: and over and over again I have said to myself, after reading one of his discussions, “Here would be a fine subject for half-a-dozen years’ work.”

  Autobiography, 108–9

  Alfred Russel Wallace: Your modesty and candour are very far from new to me. I hope it is a satisfaction to you to reflect,—& very few things in my life have been more satisfactory to me—that we have never felt any jealousy towards each other, though in one sense rivals. I believe that I can say this of myself with truth, & I am absolutely sure that it is true of you.

  Darwin to A. R. Wallace,

  20 April [1870], DCP 7167

  Josiah Wedgwood II: He was the very type of an upright man with the clearest judgment. I do not believe that any power on earth could have made him swerve an inch from what he considered the right course. I used to apply to him in my mind, the well-known ode of Horace, now forgotten by me, in which the words “nec vultus tyranni, &c.,” come in [“The man who is tenacious of purpose in a rightful cause is not shaken by the frenzy of his fellow citizens clamoring for what is wrong or by the tyrant’s threatening countenance.” Horace Book III, ode iii].

  Autobiography, 56

  Reflections by His Contemporaries

  William Allingham: Tall, yellow, sickly, very quiet. He has his meals at his own times, sees people or not as he chooses, has invalid’s privileges in full, a great help to a studious man.

  Allingham 1907, 184

  Samuel Butler: It is doubtless a common practice for writers [Darwin] to take an opportunity of revising their works, but it is not common when a covert condemnation of an opponent [Butler] has been interpolated into a revised edition, the revision of which has been concealed, to declare with every circumstance of distinctness that the condemnation was written prior to the book which might appear to have called it forth, and thus lead readers to suppose that it must be an unbiassed opinion.

  S. Butler, letter criticising

  Darwin’s Life of Erasmus Darwin,

  31 January 1880, Athenæum, 155

  Moncure Daniel Conway: This formidable man, speaking from the shelter of the English throne and from under the wings of the English Church itself, did not mean to give Dogmatic Christianity its deathblow; he meant to utter a simple theory of nature.

  Conway 1904, 250

  Anton Dohrn: I must confess, Darwin’s personal appearance surprised me very much. I had expected to find a sick-looking man; instead I saw before me a tall, strong, grey bearded stature, full of life and cheerfulness and heart-winning amiability.

  Gröben 1982, 93

  Hugo De Vries: He has deep set eyes and in addition very protruding eyebrows, much more than one would say from his portrait. He is tall and thin and has thin hands, he walks slowly and uses a cane and has to stop from time to time. He is very much afraid of drafts and generally has to be very careful with his health. His speech is very lively, merry and cordial, not too quick and very clear.

  Pas 1970, 187

  Hugh Falconer: I am of opinion that Mr. Darwin is not only one of the most eminent naturalists of his day, but that hereafter he will be regarded as one of the Great Naturalists of all Countries and of all time.

  Nomination for the Copley

  Medal of the Royal Society,

  25 October 1864, DCP 4644

  Rev. George Ffinden [vicar of Down parish]: I confess that, perhaps, I am a bit sour over Darwin and his works. You see, I’m a Churchman first and foremost. He never came to church, and it was such a bad business for the parish, a bad example. He was, however, most amiable and benevolent and courteous, and very liberal. I remember his giving me a subscription for the church and the house restoration or building. “Of course,” he told me, “I don’t believe in this at all.” “I don’t suppose you do,” I said to him. Quite candid on both sides.

  A visit to Darwin’s village,

  Evening News, 12 February 1909, 4

  William Darwin Fox: I suppose your destiny is to let your Brain destroy your Body.

  W. D. Fox to Darwin,

  28 November [1864], DCP 4683

  Francis Galton: I felt little difficulty in connecting with the Origin of Species, but devoured its contents and assimilated them as fast as they were devoured, a fact which perhaps may be ascribed to an hereditary bent of mind that both its illustrious author and myself have inherited from our common grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin. I made occasional excursions to visit Charles Darwin at Down, usually at luncheon-time, always with a sense of the utmost veneration as well as of the warmest affection, which his invariably hearty greeting greatly encouraged. I think his intellectual characteristic that struck me most forcibly was the aptness of his questionings; he got thereby very quickly to the bottom of what was in the mind of the person he conversed with, and to the value of it.

  Galton 1909, 288

  Ernst Haeckel: There stepped out to meet me from the shady porch, overgrown with creeping plants, the great naturalist himself, a tall and venerable figure with the broad shoulders of an Atlas supporting a world of thoughts, his Jupiter-like forehead highly and broadly arched, as in the case of Goethe, and deeply furrowed by the plough of mental labour; his kindly, mild eyes looking forth under the shadow of prominent brows; his amiable mouth surrounded by a copious silver-white beard.

  Haeckel 1882, 6

  J. D. Hooker: Glorified friend! Your photograph tells me where [John Rogers] Herbert got his Moses for the Fresco in the House of Lords.—horns & halo & all.

  J. D. Hooker to Darwin,

  [11 June 1864], DCP 4529

  Alexander von Humboldt: You have an excellent future ahead of you.

  A. von Humboldt to Darwin,

  18 September 1839, DCP 534

  T. H. Huxley: One of the kindest and truest men that it was ever my good fortune to know.

  Life and Letters, vol. 2, 182

  Rev. J. B. Innes: We had been speaking of the apparent contradiction of some supposed discoveries with the Book of Genesis; he said, “you are (it would have been more correct to say you ought to be) a theologian, I am a naturalist, the lines are separate. I endeavour to discover facts without considering what is said in the Book of Genesis. I do not attack Moses, and I think Moses can take care of himself.” To the same effect he wr
ote more recently, “I cannot remember that I ever published a word directly against religion or the clergy….”

  Life and Letters, vol. 2, 288–89

  Leonard Jenyns: He occasionally visited me at my Vicarage, at Swaffham Bulbeck, and we made Entomological excursions together, sometimes in the Fens—that rich district yielding so many rare species of insects and plants—at other times in the woods and plantations of Bottisham Hall. He mostly used a sweeping net, with which he made a number of successful captures I had never made myself, though a constant resident in the neighbourhood.

  Jenyns 1887, 44

  Henry Lettington [Darwin’s gardener]: I often wish he had something to do. He moons about in the garden, and I have seen him stand doing nothing before a flower for ten minutes at a time. If he only had something to do I really believe he would be better.

  John Lubbock, Darwin-Wallace celebration 1908,

  Linnean Society of London, 57

  John Lewis [carpenter in Down village]: But he was always a rare man for snuff, black snuff, that Lundy Foot. He kept it on the hall table, in a big tin that held near two quarts, and he’d be running in and out of the study twenty times a day for a go.

  A visit to Darwin’s village,

  Evening News, 12 February 1909, 4

  Harriet Martineau: The simple, childlike, painstaking, effective Charles Darwin, who established himself presently at the head of living English naturalists.

  Chapman 1877, vol. 1, 268

  Lady Dorothy Nevill: I am sending curious plants to experimentalize upon to Mr. Darwin. I am so pleased to help in any way the labours of such a man—it is quite an excitement for me in my quiet life, my intercourse with him—he promises to pay me a visit when in London. I am sure he will find I am the missing link between man and apes.

  Nevill 1919, 56

  Marianne North: I was asked by Mrs. Litchfield [Henrietta Darwin] to come and meet her father, Charles Darwin, who wanted to see me, but could not climb my stairs. He was, in my eyes, the greatest man living, the most truthful, as well as the most unselfish and modest, always trying to give others rather than himself the credit of his own great thoughts and work…. I was much flattered at his wishing to see me, and when he said he thought I ought not to attempt any representation of the vegetation of the world until I had seen and painted the Australian, which was so unlike that of any other country, I determined to take it as a royal command and to go at once.

  Symonds 1894 vol. 2, 87

  Charles Eliot Norton: We have seen Darwin several times during the last ten days. He is a delightful person from his simplicity, sweetness and strength…. His face is massive, with little beauty of feature but much of expression. He has a lively humour, and a cheerful, friendly manner…. His talk is not often memorable on account of brilliant or impressive sayings, but it is always the expression of the qualities of mind and heart which combine in such rare excellence in his genius.

  Norton 1913, vol. 1, 309, 477

  Joseph Parslow [Darwin’s butler]: He was a very social, nice sort of gentleman, very joking and jolly indeed; a good husband and a good father and a most excellent master. Even his footmen used to stay with him as long as five years. They would rather stay with him than take a higher salary somewhere else. The cook came there while young and stayed till his death—nearly thirty years.

  Jordan 1922, vol. 1, 273

  Alfred Lord Tennyson Aug. 17th. [1868] Farringford. Mr. Darwin called, and seemed to be very kindly, unworldly, and agreeable. A. said to him, “Your theory of Evolution does not make against Christianity”: and Darwin answered, “No, certainly not.”

  Tennyson 1898, vol. 3, 74

  Kliment Timiriazev: A few minutes later, and quite unexpectedly, Darwin entered the room…. I was confronted with an impressive old man with a large grey beard, deep-sunken eyes, whose calm and gentle look made you forget about the scientist and think about the man. I couldn’t help comparing him to an ancient sage or an Old Testament patriarch, a comparison which has often been quoted since.

  Timiriazev 2006, 51

  Mark Twain: I do regard it as a very great compliment and a very high honor that that great mind, laboring for the whole human race, should rest itself on my books. I am proud that he should read himself to sleep with them.

  Twain 1910, 33

  John Tyndall: I allude to Mr Charles Darwin, the Abraham of scientific men—a searcher as obedient to the command of truth as was the patriarch to the command of God.

  Tyndall 1871, 368

  Alfred Russel Wallace: As to Darwin, I know exactly our relative positions, & my great inferiority to him. I compare myself to a Guerilla chief, very well for a skirmish or for a flank movement, & even able to sketch out the plan of a campaign, but reckless of communications & careless about Commissariat;—while Darwin is the great General, who can manoeuvre the largest army, & by attending to his lines of communication with an impregnable base of operations, & forgetting no detail of discipline, arms or supplies, leads his forces to victory. I feel truly thankful that Darwin had been studying the subject so many years before me, & that I was not left to attempt & to fail, in the great work he has so admirably performed.

  A. R. Wallace to Charles Kingsley,

  7 May 1869, Wallace Letters Online

  Victoria, Princess Royal of Russia: She was very much au fait at the “Origin”…. She said after twice reading you she could not see her way as to the origin of four things; namely the world, species, man, or the black and white races. Did one of the latter come from the other, or both from some common stock? And she asked me what I was doing, and I explained that in recasting the “Principles” I had to give up the independent creation of each species. She said she fully understood my difficulty, for after your book “the old opinions had received a shake from which they never would recover.”

  Charles Lyell to Darwin,

  16 January 1865, DCP 4746

  Recollections by His Family

  The way he brought us up is shown by a little story about my brother Leonard, which my father was fond of telling. He came into the drawing-room and found Leonard dancing about on the sofa, which was forbidden, for the sake of the springs, and said, “Oh, Lenny, Lenny, that’s against all rules,” and received for answer, “Then I think you’d better go out of the room.”

  Life and Letters, vol. 1, 134

  It is a proof of the terms on which we were, and also of how much he was valued as a play-fellow, that one of his sons when about four years old tried to bribe him with sixpence to come and play in working hours. We all knew the sacredness of working time, but that any one should resist sixpence seemed an impossibility…. Another mark of his unbounded patience was the way in which we were suffered to make raids into the study when we had an absolute need of sticking-plaster, string, pins, scissors, stamps, foot-rule, or hammer. These and other such necessaries were always to be found in the study, and it was the only place where this was a certainty. We used to feel it wrong to go in during work-time; still, when the necessity was great, we did so. I remember his patient look when he said once, “Don’t you think you could not come in again, I have been interrupted very often.”

  Life and Letters, vol. 1, 136

  Our elder cousin, Julia Wedgwood, said that the only place in my father’s and mother’s house where you might be sure of not meeting a child, was the nursery, and as a matter of fact we did live with our parents far more than do most children. Many a time, even during his working hours, was a sick child tucked up on my father’s sofa, to be quiet and safe and soothed by his presence.

  Emma Darwin, vol. 1, 468

  I remember my father entering the drawing room at Down, apparently seeking for someone, when I, then a schoolboy, was sitting on the sofa with the Origin of Species in my hands. He looked over my shoulder and said: “I bet you half a crown that you do not get to the end of that book.” Keynes 1943, 35

  Keynes 1943, 35

  As a young lad I went up to my father when strolling abo
ut the lawn, and he, after, as I believe a kindly word or two, turned away as if quite incapable of carrying on any conversation. Then there suddenly shot through my mind the conviction that he wished he were no longer alive. Must there not have been a strained and weary expression in his face to have produced in these circumstances such an effect on a boy’s mind?

  L. Darwin 1929, 121

  My father much enjoyed wandering slowly in the garden with my mother or some of his children, or making one of a party, sitting out on a bench on the lawn; he generally sat, however, on the grass, and I remember him often lying under one of the big lime-trees, with his head on the green mound at its foot.

  Life and Letters, vol. 1, 116

  He could not help personifying natural things. This feeling came out in abuse as well as in praise—e.g. of some seedlings—“The little beggars are doing just what I don’t want them to.” He would speak in a half-provoked, half-admiring way of the ingenuity of a Mimosa leaf in screwing itself out of a basin of water in which he had tried to fix it. One might see the same spirit in his way of speaking of Sundew, earthworms, &c.

  Life and Letters, vol. 1, 117

  He had a boy-like love of sweets, unluckily for himself, since he was constantly forbidden to take them. He was not particularly successful in keeping the “vows,” as he called them, which he made against eating sweets, and never considered them binding unless he made them aloud.