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Charles Darwin

15 free books by Charles Darwin. 15 you can read right here.

Born 1809 · Died 1882 in Down House

writer · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Notable works: On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection, On the Origin of Species, The Voyage of the Beagle, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

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Facts from Wikidata (Q1035), retrieved 2026-09-26.

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Quotes from Charles Darwin’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1228 (public domain in the USA).

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

XIV. RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSIONRead in context →

This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection.

IV. NATURAL SELECTIONRead in context →

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The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1227 (public domain in the USA).

A pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some dogs in a very peculiar manner, namely, by grinning.

V. SPECIAL EXPRESSIONS OF ANIMALSRead in context →

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