Thomas Huxley Quotes - Page 8

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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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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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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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Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process; the end of which is not the survival of those who may happen to be the fittest, in respect of the whole of the conditions which obtain, but of those who are ethically the best.

Thomas Huxley

Mean, Survival, Progress

Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.327, University of Georgia Press

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What are the moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; that merit attaches to readiness to believe; that the doubting disposition is a bad one, and skepticism is a sin.

Thomas Huxley

Believe, Government, People

Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews”, p.17

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I have endeavoured to show that no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn between the animal world and ourselves; and I may add the expression of my belief that the attempt to draw a physical distinction is equally futile, and that even the highest faculties of feeling and of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life.

Thomas Huxley

Animal, Expression, Feelings

"Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature". Book by Thomas Henry Huxley. Chapter 2, p. 129, 1863.

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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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The clergy are at present divided into three sections: an immense body who are ignorant; a small proportion who know and are silent; and a minute minority who know and speak according to their knowledge.

Thomas Huxley

Ignorant, Three, Minorities

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Life is like walking along a crowded street--there always seem to be fewer obstacles to getting along on the opposite pavement--and yet, if one crosses over, matters are rarely mended.

Thomas Huxley

Life, Opposites, Matter

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

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Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third.

Thomas Huxley

Assumption, Chemistry, Sometimes

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.60, Cambridge University Press

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The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals.

Thomas Huxley

Struggle, Science, Thinking

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.229, Cambridge University Press

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I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of 'agnostic'.

Thomas Huxley

Titles, Agnostic, Appropriate

'Collected Essays' (1893-94) 'Agnosticism'

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Science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense.

Thomas Huxley

Science, Common Sense, Common

'Collected Essays' (1893-94) 'The Method of Zadig'

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The scientific imagination always restrains itself within the limits of probability.

Thomas Huxley

Imagination, Limits, Probability

Thomas Henry Huxley (2012). “Collected Essays, Volume V Science and Christian Tradition: Essays”, p.138, tredition

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No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.

Thomas Huxley

Life, Mother, Method

Thomas Henry Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.5, Library of Alexandria

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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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There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.

Thomas Huxley

Mistake, Opinion, Conclusion

Method and Results The Progress of Science (p. 369)

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Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature.

Thomas Huxley

Education, Teaching, Law

Thomas Henry Huxley, Cyril Bibby (1971). “T. H. Huxley on Education”, p.79, Cambridge University Press

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Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before. Some day, I doubt not, we shall arrive at an understanding of the evolution of the aesthetic faculty; but all the understanding in the world will neither increase nor diminish the force of the intuition that this is beautiful and that is ugly.

Thomas Huxley

Beautiful, Men, Evil

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.80, Cambridge University Press

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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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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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That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain and improve, in opposition to State of Nature, the State of Art of an organized polity; in which, and by which, man may develop a worthy civilization

Thomas Huxley

Art, Nature, Lying

Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.307, University of Georgia Press

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There are some men who are counted great because they represent the actuality of their own age, and mirror it as it is. Such an one was Voltaire, of whom it was epigrammatically said: "he expressed everybody's thoughts better than anyone." But there are other men who attain greatness because they embody the potentiality of their own day and magically reflect the future. They express the thoughts which will be everybody's two or three centuries after them. Such as one was Descartes.

Thomas Huxley

Science, Greatness, Men

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That man, I think, has had a liberal education, who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will.

Thomas Huxley

Education, Teaching, Men

Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.211, University of Georgia Press

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

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