Charles Darwin Facts Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who changed the way humans viewed themselves

and the world around them through his amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection. Read on for interesting facts, quotes and science information about Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin was born in England on the 12th of February 1809, he died on the 19th of April 1882. He is most famous for his work on natural selection, the idea that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors. This process involves favorable traits becoming more common in successive generations of living things while at the same time unfavorable traits become less common. Not only did Darwin develop the idea of natural selection, he also presented compelling evidence from his detailed research which included a five year voyage on the HMS Beagle. On this voyage, Darwin visited ecologically diverse regions such as Brazil, Chile, Australia, the Falkland Islands and the Galapagos Islands. His 1859 book On the Origin of Species, detailed much of his research on natural selection, it contained a large amount of evidence to back up his ideas and became a landmark work in the field of evolutionary biology. Darwins ideas created a lot of discussion regarding the impact on various scientific, religious and philosophical viewpoints. Although most of those in educated society accepted the theory of evolution, many still challenge its existence despite the wealth of evidence supporting it. Although in later life Darwin suffered from a range of illnesses, he continued with his research and undertook new experiments to help support his ideas while at the same time forming new ones in other fields. Other famous work by Charles Darwin includes: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, The Power of Movement in Plants and The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms. Famous Charles Darwin quotes include: Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationship to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act. I have watched how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery. What a proud thing for England if she is the first European nation which utterly abolishes it!

"Follow your bliss." - Joseph Campbell

"For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it." - Ivan Panin

"To laugh often and love much... to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one's self... this is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Whenever I have knocked, a door has opened. Wherever I have wandered, a path has appeared. I have been helped, supported, encouraged and nurtured by people of all races, creeds, colors and dreams." - Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers' Garden

"To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart, and to sing it to them when they have forgotten." - Anonymous

"The more I give to thee, the more I have.'' - William Shakespeare

"What will survive of us is love.'' - Philip Larkin

"The mind determines what is possible. The heart surpasses it.'' - Pilar Colinta

"Give your hands to serve and your hearts to love.'' - Mother Teresa

"I am in love - and, my God, it is the greatest thing that can happen to a man. I tell you, find a woman you can fall in love with. Do it. Let yourself fall in love. If you have not done so already, you are wasting your life." - D. H. Lawrence

"Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go." - Louise Driscoll

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed." - Chamfort

"Maybe love is like luck. You have to go all the way to find it." - Robert Mitchum

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it...It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." - Erica Jong

"At last you kissed me, I could die in waves again, and one good lick of quicksand took..." - Heather McHugh

"Where love is, no room is too small." - Talmud

"Speak to him, for there is none born wise." - Ptahhotpe

"We can only learn to love by loving." - Iris Murdoch

"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale." - anonymous

"A light heart lives long." - William Shakespeare

"Never go to bed mad -- stay up and fight." - Phyllis Diller

"To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia." - H.L. Mencken

"Once you have loved someone, you'd do anything in the world for them... except love them again." - Anonymous

"Love is like war: Easy to begin but hard to end." - Anonymous

"Love has the power of making you believe what you would normally treat with the deepest suspicion." - Mirabeau

"Three things can't be hidden: coughing, poverty, and love." - Yiddish proverb

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed." - Chamfort

From Moonstruck:

I. Rose: Do you love him, Loretta? Loretta Castorini: No. Rose: Good. When you love them they drive you crazy because they know they can.

II. Rose: Do you love him, Loretta? Loretta Castorini: Aw, ma, I love him awful. Rose: Oh, God, that's too bad.

"I detest 'love lyrics.' I think one of the causes of bad mental health in the United States is that people have been raised on 'love lyrics." - Frank Zappa

"You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap." - Dolly Parton

"I should like to see any kind of a man, distinguishable from a gorilla, that some good and even pretty woman could not shape a husband out of." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"A woman might as well propose: her husband will claim she did." - Edgar Watson Howe

"I feel like Zsa Zsa Gabor's eighth husband on her wedding night: I know what I'm supposed to do...I just have to figure out a way to make it interesting." many attributions

"No man is truly married until he understands every word his wife is NOT saying." - unknown

"An old man who marries a young wife grows younger - but she grows older." - folk saying

"It is not uncommon for slight acquaintances to get married, but a couple really have to know each other to get divorced." - Anonymous

"What female heart can despise gold?" - Thomas Gray

"A lady of 47 who has been married 27 years and has six children knows what love really is and once described it for me like this: 'Love is what you've been through with somebody.'" - James Thurber

"I love being married. It's so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." - Rita Rudner

"The people people have for friends Your common sense appall But the people people marry Are the queerest folk of all." - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away." - Dorothy Parker

"Do not marry a man to reform him. That is what reform schools are for." - Mae West

"The body, she says, is subject to the forces of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure." - Saul Bellow

"It does not matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you do not do it in the street and frighten the horses." - Mrs. Patrick Campbell

"A happy home is one in which each spouse grants the possibility that the other may be right, though neither believes it." - Don Fraser

"If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?" - unknown

"There are three kinds of men who do not understand women: Young, old, and middle-aged." - Anonymous (and with good reason)

"Women like me because I make them laugh. And what is an orgasm, except laughter of the loins?" - Mickey Rooney

"There will be sex after death, we just won't be able to feel it." - Lily Tomlin

"A bride at her second wedding does not wear a veil. She wants to see what she is getting." - Helen Rowland

"Don't threaten me with love, Baby. Let's just go walking in the rain." - Billie Holiday

"Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, A medley of extemporanea; And love is a thing that can never go wrong; And I am Marie of Roumania." - Dorothy Parker

"Marriage is a fine institution - but I'm not ready for an institution." - Mae West

"My heart's in the right place. I know, 'cuz I hid it there." - Carrie Fisher

"My wife and I have sex almost every day of the week," Milton Berle once said. "Yes, almost Monday, almost Tuesday, almost Wednesday."

"If you do kiss a politician, remember this: You are not only kissing him, you are kissing every butt that he has kissed in the last eight years." - Jay Leno

"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down." - Woody Allen, Love and Death

"To laugh often and love much... to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one's self... this is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We cannot really love anybody without whom we never laugh." - Alice Reppler

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. William M. Thackeray Love the heart that hurts you, but never hurt the heart that loves you. Vipin Sharma * Love isn't just for the smart of talented, but for all the amimals God created. Sarah Wonders * I'd like to run away From you, But if you didn't come And find me ... I would die. Shirley Bassey * No man is truly married until he understands every word his wife is NOT saying. Unknown

* To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. Samuel Butler, Life and love

* True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist, Nor can it be hidden where it truly does. Anonymous * Life without love is like a tree Without blossom and fruit. Khalil Gibra * I love thee, I love but thee With a love that shall not die Till the sun grows cold And the stars grow old. Willam Shakespeare * Love is a wonderful thing. You never have to take it away From one person to give it to another. There's always more than enough to go around. Pamela de Roy

* Love is like a rumor, Everyone talks about it, But no one truly knows. Anonymous * Love is a haunting melody That I have never mastered And I fear I never will. William S. Burroughs * Once in awhile, Right in the middle of an ordinary life, Love gives us a fairy tale. Anonymous * You love simply because you cannot help it. Kim Anderson * Love is not a matter of counting the years... But making the years count. Michelle St. Amand * My love, you know you are my best friend. You know that I'd do anything for you And my love, let nothing come between us. My love for you is strong and true. Sarah McLachlan

* May no gift be too small to give, nor too simple to receive, which is wrapped in thoughtfulness and tied with love. L.O. Baird * Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness. Oliver Wendell Holmes * Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand. Mother Teresa * Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. J. Isham

* Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eye, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. William Shakespeare * Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another's heart, or its flame burns low. Henry Ward Beecher * Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction. Antoine de Saint-Exupery * Love is always bestowed as a gift -- freely, willingly, and without expectation.... We don't love to be loved; we love to love. Leo Buscaglia

* The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable. Victor Hugo

* Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love. Erich Fromm * There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved. George Sand * Love is an act of endless forgiveness A tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov * The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller * The courses of true love never did run smooth. William Shakespeare