Thomas Huxley Quotes - Page 12

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• The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind.

  Thomas Huxley

  Expression, Mind, Scientific Method

  "Our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature". Book by Thomas Henry Huxley, 1863.

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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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• If the hypothesis of evolution is true, living matter must have arisen from non-living matter; for by the hypothesis the condition of the globe was at one time such, that living matter could not have existed in it, life being entirely incompatible with the gaseous state.

  Thomas Huxley

  Matter, Evolution, States

  "Biology, with Preludes on Current Events". Book by Joseph Cook, p. 39, 1878.

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• The sceptics end in the infidelity which asserts the problem to be insoluble, or in the atheism which denies the existence of any orderly progress and governance of things: the men of genius propound solutions which grow into systems of Theology or of Philosophy, or veiled in musical language which suggests more than it asserts, take the shape of the Poetry of an epoch.

  Thomas Huxley

  Philosophy, Men, Infidelity

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.66, University of Georgia Press

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• Each such answer to the great question, invariably asserted by the followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century, or it may be for twenty: but, as invariably, Time proves each reply to have been a mere approximation to the truth tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors.

  Thomas Huxley

  Ignorance, Twenties, Finals

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.66, University of Georgia Press

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• Within the last fifty years, the extraordinary growth of every department of physical science has spread among us mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a character that a new ecdysis seems imminent.

  Thomas Huxley

  Character, Years, Growth

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.66, University of Georgia Press

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• Even in the important matter of cranial capacity, Men differ more widely from one another than they do from the Apes; while the lowest Apes differ as much, in proportion, from the highest, as the latter does from Man.

  Thomas Huxley

  Men, Important, Doe

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.83, University of Georgia Press

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• Whatever part of the animal fabric whatever series of muscles, whatever viscera might be selected for comparison the result would be the same the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla and the Man.

  Thomas Huxley

  Animal, Men, Would Be

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.116, Cambridge University Press

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• The whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in view of the intimate relations between Man and the rest of the living world; and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed from the inorganic to the organic from blind force to conscious intellect and will.

  Thomas Huxley

  Crush, Men, Views

  "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature". Book by Thomas Henry Huxley. Chapter 1, p. 28, 1884.

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• I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel.

  Thomas Huxley

  Christian, Atheist, School

  Letter to Charles Kingsley, mathcs.clarku.edu. May 05, 1863.

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• Every living creature commences its existence under a form different from, and simpler than, that which it eventually attains.

  Thomas Huxley

  Different, Form, Existence

  Thomas H. Huxley (2013). “Man's Place in Nature”, p.74, Courier Corporation

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• I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness, or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs true sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is what are you going to do with all these things?

  Thomas Huxley

  Fate, Issues, Degrees

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.260, Cambridge University Press

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• It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.

  Thomas Huxley

  Belief, Forgotten, Instinct

  Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.310, Cambridge University Press

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• It is a popular delusion that the scientific enquirer is under an obligation not to go beyond generalisation of observed facts...but anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond the facts, rarely get as far.

  Thomas Huxley

  Science, Facts, Delusion

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• It seems safe to look forward to the time when the conception of attractive and repulsive forces, having served its purpose as a useful piece of scientific scaffolding, will be replaced by the deduction of the phenomena known as attraction and repulsion, from the general laws of motion.

  Thomas Huxley

  Law, Looks, Purpose

  "The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century" by Thomas Henry Huxley, 1889.

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• Only a scientific people can survive in a scientific future.

  Thomas Huxley

  People

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• Oh devil! truth is better than much profit. I have searched over the grounds of my belief, and if wife and child and name and fame were all to be lost to me one after the other as the penalty, still I will not lie.

  Thomas Huxley

  Children, Lying, Names

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.357, University of Georgia Press

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