"There should be open competition for all men; and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Important as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is concerned there are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities are advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, the reasoning powers, instruction, religion, &c., than through natural selection; though to this latter agency the social instincts, which afforded the basis for the development of the moral sense, may be safely attributed."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
1st ed. (1871) pp. 403-404
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man%2C_and_Selection_in_Relation_to_Sex
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
34 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex →
Related Quotes
"As dogs, cats, horses, and probably all the higher animals, even birds, as is stated on good authority, have vivid dr…"
"It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently beget…"
"Man differs from woman in size, bodily strength, hairyness, &c., as well as in mind, in the same manner as do the two…"
"Man bears in his bodily structure clear traces of his descent from some lower form; but it may be urged that, as man …"
"My object in this chapter is solely to shew that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammal…"
"The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhib…"
"The love of a dog for his master is notorious; in the agony of death he has been known to caress his master, and ever…"
"Most of the more complex emotions are common to the higher animals and ourselves. Every one has seen how jealous a do…"
"As Horne Tooke, one of the founders of the noble science of philology, observes, language is an art, like brewing or …"
"All animals feel Wonder, and many exhibit Curiosity. They sometimes suffer from this latter quality, as when the hunt…"