“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.”
This quotation is one of the most popular and misattributed phrases on the internet — most people think it’s something Charles Darwin wrote. He didn’t. It’s from Leon Megginson, a Louisiana professor of business management.
To encourage proper attribution, I thought I’d seed the internet with three images that give Dr Megginson his credit. The hope is that these images might eventually get included in Google search results when people are searching for pre-made slides that have the quote.
The first version features a Galapagos marine iguana with its mouth open, as if it was saying something. It’s actually yawning, so use cautiously if you are a boring speaker.
The second slide is a photograph of Leon C. Megginson himself, looking confident in front of chalkboard.
The final image is a photograph of Charles Darwin, the man who clearly inspired Megginson.
As proof of why we need to get the word out about the quote’s source, here’s a feed showing how all the recent usage on Twitter.:
Tweets about it is not the strongest of the species
Most of the tweets are from nutritionists, motivational speakers, and business management types.
By the way, the misattribution exists even among people who should know better. E.g., the quote is found on the wall of the Charles Darwin Foundation’s gift shop, and on the floor of the California Academy of Science.
If you need an actual quote from Darwin, there are hundreds of thousands to choose from. Just browse Darwin Online for all his books (~42 of them!), articles (~246), letters, and notebooks. There’s also the Darwin Correspondence Project.