On the Origin of Species

by Charles Darwin

I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.

What an artful way to get the reader on board with you. This is what FBI interviewers and negotiators are taught to do.

Who can explain why one species ranges widely and is very numerous, and why another allied species has a narrow range and is rare? Yet these relations are of the highest importance, for they determine the present welfare, and, as I believe, the future success and modification of every inhabitant of this world.

How do we create a people that can sustain the human race? It seems that we've created too many contrarian snowflakes and authoritarian trolls--people who are only smart enough to be dangerous, but not enough meditative temperance to wisely improve the "present welfare."