The law is not the survival of the 'better' or the 'stronger,' if we give to those words any thing like their ordinary meanings. If only the fit survive and if the fitter they are the longer they survive, then Volvox must have demonstrated its superb fitness more conclusively than any higher animal ever has. Quotes tagged as "survival-of-the-fittest" Showing 1-30 of 91 “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson It cannot but happen?that those will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces? It is the survival of those which are constitutionally fittest to thrive under the conditions in which they are placed; and very often that which, humanly speaking, is inferiority, causes the survival. "The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient" Darwin was so taken with Spencer's catchy phrase that he did, in fact, use it in a later (1869) edition of his "The Origin of Species".

And truly so it is, as appears, in that it was so careful to lodge all Land Animals in the Ark at the Time of the general Deluge; and in that, of all Animals recorded in Natural Histories, we cannot say that there hath been anyone Species lost, no not of the most infirm, and most exposed to Injury and Ravine. The answer was clearly, that on the whole the best fitted live. Teetering on the boundary is Herbert Spencer, born 200 years ago this week. But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. “Survival of the existing” in many cases covers more of the truth. No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy. In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.). However, Wallace did not publish anything on his use of the expression until very much later, and his recollection is likely flawed.] Wallace Stegner Quotes: There must be some other possibility than death…, William Golding Quotes: The flames, as though they were a kind…, W. Paul Young Quotes: Why do children love to hide and seek?…, Yann Martel Quotes: The worst pair of opposites is boredom and…, Wally Lamb Quotes: Joy said she hadn’t really understood the meaning…, William Goldman Quotes: Who says life is fair, where is that…, Chris Warren Quotes: I just know it's going to be…. The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest. Wallace saw the term in correspondence from Charles Darwin the following year, 1866. We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. Message

12 (1865) See Darwin 7; Philander Johnson 1; Herbert Spencer 6, 'Social Statics' (1850) pt. “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.461, Herbert Spencer (1873). How often misused words generate misleading thoughts. I thought of his clear exposition of 'the positive checks to increase'—disease, accidents, war, and famine—which keep down the population of savage races to so much lower an average than that of more civilized peoples. I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your letter. While the law [of competition] may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department. “The Right to Ignore the State”, p.6, The Floating Press, Herbert Spencer, John Offer (1994). These checks—war, disease, famine, and the like—must, it occurred to me, act on animals as well as man.
Nature knows no political boundaries. The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. Quotes. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words, natural selection.

Letter to A. R. Wallace July 1866. 4, ch. The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection. Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman. In these strenuous times, we are likely to become morbid and look constantly on the dark side of life, and spend entirely too much time considering and brooding over what we can't do, rather than what we can do, and instead of growing morose and despondent over opportunities either real or imaginary that are shut from us, let us rejoice at the many unexplored fields in which there is unlimited fame and fortune to the successful explorer and upon which there is no color line; simply the survival of the fittest.
It was not intended to do less: it ought not to be allowed to do more. Chance, one might say, produced an innumerable multitude of individuals; a small number turned out to be constructed in such fashion that the parts of the animal could satisfy its needs; in another, infinitely greater number, there was neither suitability nor order: all of the later have perished; animals without a mouth could not live, others lacking organs for reproduction could not perpetuate themselves: the only ones to have remained are those in which were found order and suitability; and these species, which we see today, are only the smallest part of what blind fate produced. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.