Thomas Huxley Quotes - Page 10

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• The facts of variability, of the struggle for existence, of adaptation to conditions, were notorious enough; but none of us had suspected that the road to the heart of the species problem lay through them, until Darwin and Wallace dispelled the darkness.

  Thomas Huxley

  Struggle, Heart, Darkness

  Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.246, Cambridge University Press

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• The occurrence of successive forms of life upon our globe is an historical fact, which cannot be disputed; and the relation of these successive forms, as stages of evolution of the same type, is established in various cases.

  Thomas Huxley

  Historical, Facts, Evolution

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.102, Cambridge University Press

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• To say that an idea is necessary is simply to affirm that we cannot conceive the contrary; and the fact that we cannot conceive the contrary of any belief may be a presumption, but is certainly no proof, of its truth.

  Thomas Huxley

  Truth, Ideas, May

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.157, Library of Alexandria

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• There is nothing of permanent value (putting aside a few human affections) nothing that satisfies quiet reflection--except the sense of having worked according to one's capacity and light to make things clear and get rid of cant and shams of all sorts.

  Thomas Huxley

  Truth, Reflection, Light

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1920). “Readings from Huxley”

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• Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.

  Thomas Huxley

  Spiritual, Science, Ideas

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2006). “Huxley's Autobiography and Essays”, p.168, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men, with his mere natural appliances, to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains of salt; but a shower of rain will effect the same object in ten minutes.

  Thomas Huxley

  Nature, Rain, Science

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1870). “Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews”, p.296, Adam, Stevenson

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• You may read any quantity of books, and you may almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don't have, at the back of yourminds, the change for words in definite images which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena of nature.

  Thomas Huxley

  Book, Ignorant, May

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1877). “American Addresses: With a Lecture on the Study of Biology”, p.153

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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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• 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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• Missionaries, whether of philosophy or religion, rarely make rapid way, unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions ofthe multitude of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a stalking-horse for the promotion of the practical aims of the still larger multitude, who do not profess to think much, but are quite certain they want a great deal.

  Thomas Huxley

  Horse, Philosophy, Fall

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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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• 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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• I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.

  Thomas Huxley

  Rejection, Mind, Growth

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Leonard Huxley (1900). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”

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• The population question is the real riddle of the sphinx, to which no political Oedipus has as yet found the answer. In view of the ravages of the terrible monster over-multiplication, all other riddle sink into insignificance.

  Thomas Huxley

  Real, Oedipus, Views

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• If the twentieth century is to be better than the nineteenth, it will be because there are among us men who walk in Priestley's footsteps....To all eternity, the sum of truth and right will have been increased by their means; to all eternity, falsehoods and injustice will be the weaker because they have lived.

  Thomas Huxley

  Mean, Men, Injustice

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• Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.

  Thomas Huxley

  Science, Views, Atheism

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1908). “Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, by His Son, Leonard Huxley”

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• No man is any the worse off because another acquires wealth by trade, or by the exercise of a profession; on the contrary, he cannot have acquired his wealth except by benefiting others to the extent of what they considered to be its value.

  Thomas Huxley

  Exercise, Men, Wealth

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• Mr. Darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as I am aware, inconsistent with any known biological fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts of Development, of Comparative Anatomy, of Geographical Distribution, and of Palaeontology, become connected together, and exhibit a meaning such as they never possessed before; and I, for one, am fully convinced that if not precisely true, that hypothesis is as near an approximation to the truth as, for example, the Copernican hypothesis was to the true theory of the planetary motions.

  Thomas Huxley

  Together, Example, Development

  "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature". Book by Thomas Henry Huxley. Chapter 2, p. 127, 1863.

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• I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything especially as I am now so much occupied with theology but I don't see my way to your conclusion.

  Thomas Huxley

  Too Much, Way, Possibility

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Leonard Huxley (1900). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”

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• People never will recollect that mere learning and mere cleverness are of next to no value in life, while energy and intellectual grip, the things that are inborn and cannot be taught, are everything.

  Thomas Huxley

  People, Intellectual, Energy

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Leonard Huxley (1900). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”

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• The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental.

  Thomas Huxley

  Wise, World, Sentimental

  Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.128, Cambridge University Press

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• Misery is a match that never goes out.

  Thomas Huxley

  Misery

  Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.53, Cambridge University Press

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• The Bible has been the Magna Charta of the poor and of the oppressed.

  Thomas Huxley

  Poor, Magna Carta, Has Beens

  "The Essence of T. H. Huxley: Selections Form His Writings".

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• The more rapidly truth is spread among mankind the better it will be for them. Only let us be sure that it is the truth.

  Thomas Huxley

  Truth Is, Mankind, Spread

  Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.266, Cambridge University Press

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