Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection and would be left a fluctuating element.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Natural selection emphasizes that beneficial traits are preserved while harmful traits are eliminated in evolution.
This quote by Charles Darwin explains the mechanism of natural selection, where traits that confer a survival advantage are retained and passed on to future generations, while detrimental traits are eliminated. This process leads to the evolution of species, as variations that are neither beneficial nor harmful remain unchanged. It highlights how nature selectively favors specific characteristics, which is central to the theory of evolution.
Themes
Natural SelectionEvolutionAdaptationSurvivalFitness
In practice
Example use cases
In a biology class discussing the principles of evolution.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes →The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
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I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
Charles DarwinRead
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Charles DarwinRead
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
Charles DarwinRead
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
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