The Social Darwinist/Quotes

This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.

—Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, (accidentally) ruining Darwin's reputation forever

"If you're strong, you live; if you're weak, you die."

—Makoto Shishio, Rurouni Kenshin, laying this trope out in plain terms.

The flesh of the weak is the food of the strong.

—Makoto Shishio's life philosophy, from Rurouni Kenshin

Inequality... is not wrong. EQUALITY IS!

—Charles zi Britannia, Code Geass

The world lies. Thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not cheat, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife: all of these are lies! Mere illusion, nothing more. They don't want to be killed. They don't want to be robbed. Using the twin lies of justice and morality, the weak are endeavoring to protect themselves. But the first truth is that the strong devour the weak. So let us feed, upon people, upon wealth, upon riches and power. We of Brittania shall feast upon the raw flesh of the world itself. We must crush this deception and bring forth the truth. All hail Brittania!

—Charles zi Brittania, Code Geass

The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel.

—Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

The jigsaw piece that I cut from my subjects was only ever meant to be a symbol that that subject was missing something. A vital piece of the human puzzle. The survival instinct.

—Jigsaw, Saw II

Come on, you've read Charles Darwin. It's called Survival of the Fittest. We're just helping to speed it to its logical conclusion.

—Commander Rourke, Atlantis: The Lost Empire

I do not demand bootlicking from the higher mortal. I wish that he stand tall and forge for himself a path of greatness. You who are unwilling, you will do well to serve your masters - let yourself wear chains and serve a higher purpose, and be grateful. But if you count yourself a superior mortal, stand tall! Yet know that I will not be there to raise you up. You must raise yourself up, on your own terms. You must make yourself great, as I have forged superiority for myself.

—The Book of Roark, Lusternia

"Self-preservation is a man's first duty."

—Philip Lombard, And Then There Were None

I am as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you. I am eternal.

—Apocalypse, X-Men: The Animated Series

Natural selection leaves the survivors STRONGER and BETTER! Humans have escaped this winnowing for FAR TOO LONG.

—Albert Wesker, Resident Evil 5

When did mankind lose touch with natural selection? No matter how inferior a human's genes are, that person is protected by laws, and can't be killed. Even those incapacitated in accidents or stricken with a serious illness are needlessly kept alive. What a drawn out, wasteful existence. It's this divorce from natural selection that has caused mankind to stop evolving. It's a step down. The devolution of mankind. But I intend to accelerate the culling of genetically inferior humans. To rekindle the refining fire of natural selection.

—Hans Davis, Metal Gear Acid

I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life... Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the scum of the earth: sailors from tramp ships -- lassars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels -- a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them.

—General Zaroff, The Most Dangerous Game

"What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man."
"What Is Evil?—Whatever springs from weakness."
"What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome. Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but efficiency (virtue in the Renaissance sense, virtù, virtue free of moral acid)."
"The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it."

"What is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak— Christianity…"

—The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You say that's it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction

Well, you know, you can count me out.

—Revolution, by The Beatles

Look out at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Don't kid yourself they belong to you
They're the start of the coming race.
The Earth is a bitch, we've finished our news
Homo sapiens have outgrown their use
All the strangers came today

And it looks as though they're here to stay.

—"Oh! You Pretty Things" by David Bowie

I against my brother, my brother and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers.

—Bedouin saying probably overquoted by non-Bedouins

Anyone who believes that the theory of evolution implies moral darwinism, and who also believes in the theory of gravity, has a moral duty to go jump off a cliff.

—Ari Rahikkala

Justin: It's really simple. You bring two sides together, they fight, a lot of them die. But those who survive are stronger, smarter, and better.
Morden: It's like knocking over an anthill. Every new generation gets stronger. The anthill gets redesigned, made better.
Sheridan: So that's what the Shadows do. Come out every few thousand years, and kick over all the anthills, start wars, destroy entire races.
Justin: A few get lost along the way, yes, and that's unfortunate. I don't think it was ever easy, but you can't let that get in the way of the dream.

Morden: Think about it, Captain. Look at the long history of human struggle. Six thousand years of recorded wars, bloodshed, atrocities beyond all description. But look at what came out of all of that! We've gone to the stars, split the atom, written sonnets... We never would have come this far, if we hadn't been at each others' throats evolving our way up, inch by inch.

—Babylon 5

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

—Charles Darwin, showing that the Social Darwinists here have never read his book.

The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil. ... We must therefore bear the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more to be hoped for than expected.

—Charles Darwin, in so many more words. If this was written by anybody else, expect the Social Darwinists here to denounce him as a Wide-Eyed Idealist.