Thomas Huxley Quotes - Page 7

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The man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good and even great, is, after all, only half a man.

Thomas Huxley

Men, Half, May

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.205, Cambridge University Press

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It is one of the most saddening things in life that, try as we may, we can never be certain of making people happy, whereas we can almost always be certain of making them unhappy.

Thomas Huxley

Things In Life, People, Unhappy

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

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Of all the senseless babble I have ever had occasion to read, the demonstrations of these philosophers who undertake to tell us all about the nature of God would be the worst, if they were not surpassed by the still greater absurdities of the philosophers who try to prove that there is no God.

Thomas Huxley

God, Philosophical, Trying

"On the Hypothesis that Animals Are Automata, and Its History". Essay by Thomas Henry Huxley, mathcs.clarku.edu. 1874.

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There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word, but none without ghosts.

Thomas Huxley

Savages, Ghost, Without God

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.318, Cambridge University Press

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The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.

Thomas Huxley

Respect, Self, World

Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.261, Cambridge University Press

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As if to demonstrate, by a striking example, the impossibility of erecting any cerebral barrier between man and the apes, Nature has provided us, in the latter animals, with an almost complete series of gradations from brains little higher than that of a Rodent, to brains little lower than that of Man.

Thomas Huxley

Animal, Men, Brain

Thomas H. Huxley (2013). “Man's Place in Nature”, p.115, Courier Corporation

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From the dawn of exact knowledge to the present day, observation, experiment, and speculation have gone hand in hand; and, whenever science has halted or strayed from the right path, it has been, either because its votaries have been content with mere unverified or unverifiable speculation (and this is the commonest case, because observation and experiment are hard work, while speculation is amusing); or it has been, because the accumulation of details of observation has for a time excluded speculation.

Thomas Huxley

Hard Work, Hands, Dawn

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

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I do not say think as I think, but think in my way. Fear no shadows, least of all in that great spectre of personal unhappiness which binds half the world to orthodoxy.

Thomas Huxley

Thinking, Shadow, Half

"Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest". Book by Adrian Desmond (p. 169), 1997.

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My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right.

Thomas Huxley

World, Left

Thomas Henry Huxley (1887*). “Address Delivered by Professor Huxley at a Meeting Held in the Town Hall, Manchester, Nov. 29th, 1887 ...”

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It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.

Thomas Huxley

Science, Errors, Perfection

Thomas Henry Huxley (2004). “Evolution And Ethics”, p.247, 1st World Publishing

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Creation,' in the ordinary sense of the word, is perfectly conceivable. I find no difficulty in conceiving that, at some former period, this universe was not in existence, and that it made its appearance in six days (or instantaneously, if that is preferred), in consequence of the volition of some preexisting Being.

Thomas Huxley

Ordinary, Six, Evolution

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That mysterious independent variable of political calculation, Public Opinion.

Thomas Huxley

Independent, Political, Independence

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.194, Cambridge University Press

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Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science, as strangled snakes beside that of Hercules

Thomas Huxley

Lying, Snakes, Cradle

Thomas Gribble, Thomas Henry Huxley (1871). “The semi-barbarous Hebrew and the extinguished theologian [a reply to T.H. Huxley's Lay sermons].”, p.3

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I wish you would let an old man, who has had his share of fighting, remind you that battles, like hypotheses, are not to be multiplied beyond necessity.

Thomas Huxley

Fighting, Men, Wish

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

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The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to anyone who will take it of me

Thomas Huxley

Care, I Care, Term

Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.11, Cambridge University Press

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Genius as an explosive power beats gunpowder hollow; and if knowledge, which should give that power guidance, is wanting, the chances are not small that the rocket will simply run amuck among friends and foes.

Thomas Huxley

Running, Knowledge, Giving

Thomas Henry Huxley (1873). “Critiques and Addresses by Thomas Henry Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S”, p.7

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My belief is that no human being or society composed of human beings ever did or ever will come to much unless their conduct was governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal.

Thomas Huxley

Belief, Ethical, Idealism

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.396, Cambridge University Press

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In science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human activity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is only in one or two of them.

Thomas Huxley

Art, Believe, Two

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.57, Cambridge University Press

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There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.

Thomas Huxley

Ocean, Sea, Purpose

Thomas Henry Huxley (1917). “Method and Results: Essays”

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Tolerably early in life I discovered that one of the unpardonable sins, in the eyes of most people, is for a man to go about unlabeled. The world regards such a person as the police do an unmuzzled dog.

Thomas Huxley

Dog, Eye, Men

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.134, Cambridge University Press

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Fact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty shadow of my own mind's throwing?

Thomas Huxley

Law, Mind, Shadow

Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.191, University of Georgia Press

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Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth

Thomas Huxley

Unfaithful, Unfaithfulness

Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “More Criticisms on Darwin, and Administrative Nihilism”, p.26

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I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.

Thomas Huxley

Fashion, Believe, Might

Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.401, Cambridge University Press

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Whatever evil voices may rage, Science, secure among the powers that are eternal, will do her work and be blessed.

Thomas Huxley

Blessed, Science, Voice

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.198, Cambridge University Press

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Rome is the one great spiritual organisation which is able to resist and must, as a matter of life and death, the progress of science and modern civilization

Thomas Huxley

Spiritual, Rome, Civilization

Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews”, p.61

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Born: May 4, 1825
Died: June 29, 1895
Occupation: Biologist
Cite this Page: Citation

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