Thomas Huxley Quotes - Page 12

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• The vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical faculties, by no mental processes other than those which are practicedby every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones.

  Thomas Huxley

  Animal, Shoes, Scientific Method

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• Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as hewill, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod.

  Thomas Huxley

  Simple, Bricks, Clay

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2008). “A Scientific Education”, p.99, Lulu.com

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• If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window.

  Thomas Huxley

  Men, Church, Pieces

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature”, p.119

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• Next to being right in this world, the best of all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that sets you all straight again.

  Thomas Huxley

  Next, Facts, World

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2008). “A Scientific Education”, p.69, Lulu.com

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• To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs would be about as reasonable as to object to live one's life with due thought for the morrow because no man can be sure he will alive an hour hence.

  Thomas Huxley

  Men, Intellectual, Alive

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.206, Cambridge University Press

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• The besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of criticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation, yield to it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and flatterers. "Authorities," "disciples," and "schools" are the curse of science and do more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit than all its enemies.

  Thomas Huxley

  School, Men, Yield

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1967). “The Essence of T. H. Huxley: Selections Form His Writings”

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• Not only does every animal live at the expense of some other animal or plant, but the very plants are at war.... The individuals of a species are like the crew of a foundered ship, and none but good swimmers have a chance of reaching the land.

  Thomas Huxley

  War, Animal, Land

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.18, Cambridge University Press

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• As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.

  Thomas Huxley

  Character, Eggs, Tree

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.287, University of Georgia Press

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• Material advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress. Becky Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten thousand a year has its applications to nations; and it is futile to expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and gross.

  Thomas Huxley

  Years, Intellectual, Progress

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1882). “Science and Culture: And Other Essays”

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• Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah.

  Thomas Huxley

  Promise, Prophet, Messiah

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Henrietta A. Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and reflections”

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• Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.

  Thomas Huxley

  Doe, Territory, Size

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.110, Library of Alexandria

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• Any one who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the "anticipation of Nature," that is, by the invention of hypotheses, which, though verifiable, often had very little foundation to start with; and, not unfrequently, in spite of a long career of usefulness, turned out to be wholly erroneous in the long run.

  Thomas Huxley

  Running, Knowledge, Science

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.62, Cambridge University Press

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• That which endures is not one or another association of living forms, but the process of which the cosmos is the product, and of which these are among the transitory expressions.

  Thomas Huxley

  Expression, Survival, Cosmos

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.286, University of Georgia Press

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• Though under-instruction is a bad thing, it is not impossible that over-instruction may be worse.

  Thomas Huxley

  Education, May, Impossible

  Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.220, Cambridge University Press

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• It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews--Micah, Isaiah, and the rest--who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.

  Thomas Huxley

  Afterlife, Levels, May

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Henrietta A. Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and reflections”

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• Unfortunately, it is much easier to shut one's eyes to good than to evil. Pain and sorrow knock at our doors more loudly than pleasure and happiness; and the prints of their heavy footsteps are less easily effaced.

  Thomas Huxley

  Pain, Eye, Doors

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.323, University of Georgia Press

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• Unity of plan everywhere lies hidden under the mask: of diversity of structure-the complex is everywhere evolved out of the simple.

  Thomas Huxley

  Lying, Science, Simple

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews”, p.101

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• As I have already urged, the practice of that which is ethically best - what we call goodness or virtue - involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless selfassertion it demands self-restraint; in place of thrusting aside, or treading down, all competitors, it requires that the individual shall not merely respect , but shall help his fellows. It repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence. Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the cosmic process.

  Thomas Huxley

  Struggle, Science, Self

  "Evolution And Ethics".

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• Matter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the living as well as the lifeless.

  Thomas Huxley

  Fashion, Artist, Names

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews”, p.262

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