It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change." - Meaning and context.">
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The earliest known appearance of this basic statement is a paraphrase of Darwin in the writings of Leon C. Megginson, a management sociologist at Louisiana State University. [Megginson, Leon C. (1963), "Lessons from Europe for American Business", Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 44(1) pages: 3-13, at: p. 4] Megginson's paraphrase (with slight variations) was later turned into a quotation. See the summary of Nicholas Matzke's findings in "One thing Darwin didn't say: the source for a misquotation" at the Darwin Correspondence Project. The statement is incorrectly attributed, without any source, to Clarence Darrow in Improving the Quality of Life for the Black Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities : Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, September 25, 1987 (1988).
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It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.

— Charles Darwin

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change." in the context of "The earliest known appearance of this basic statement is a paraphrase of Darwin in the writings of Leon C. Megginson, a management sociologist at Louisiana State University. [Megginson, Leon C. (1963), "Lessons from Europe for American Business", Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 44(1) pages: 3-13, at: p. 4] Megginson's paraphrase (with slight variations) was later turned into a quotation. See the summary of Nicholas Matzke's findings in "One thing Darwin didn't say: the source for a misquotation" at the Darwin Correspondence Project. The statement is incorrectly attributed, without any source, to Clarence Darrow in Improving the Quality of Life for the Black Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities : Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, September 25, 1987 (1988)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Darwin" (Misattributed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Charles Darwin#intelligent#strongest#adaptable#survives#species#rather#change#nor
Charles Darwin

About Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He proposed that evolution could be explained in part through natural and sexual selection. Prompted by awareness that Alfred Russel Wallace was developing similar theories he published his own sooner than he had originally intended. This theory is now an integral component of biological science.