Thomas Huxley Quotes - Page 9

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If the perpetual oscillation of nations between anarchy and despotism is to be replaced by the steady march of self-restraining freedom, it will be because men will gradually bring themselves to deal with political, as they now deal with scientific questions.

Thomas Huxley

Men, Self, Political

Thomas Henry Huxley (2006). “Huxley's Autobiography and Essays”, p.234, Cosimo, Inc.

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... our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such infinite varieties of being, have laid open such new worlds in time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed.

Thomas Huxley

Eye, Science, Sight

Thomas Henry Huxley (1910). “Huxley's Autobiography and Selected Essays from Lay Sermons”

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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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As for your doctrines I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite ... I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse & misrepresentation which unless I greatly mistake is in store for you... And as to the curs which will bark and yelp - you must recollect that some of your friends at any rate are endowed with an amount of combativeness which (though you have often & justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead - I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness.

Thomas Huxley

Mistake, Science, Annoyed

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The only objections that have occurred to me are, 1st that you have loaded yourself with an unnecessary difficulty in adopting Natura non facit saltum so unreservedly. . . . And 2nd, it is not clear to me why, if continual physical conditions are of so little moment as you suppose, variation should occur at all. However, I must read the book two or three times more before I presume to begin picking holes.

Thomas Huxley

Book, Science, Two

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We live in the hope and faith that, by the advance of molecular physics, we shall by-and-by be able to see our way as clearly from the constituents of water to the properties of water, as we are now able to deduce the operations of a watch from the form of its parts and the manner in which they are put together.

Thomas Huxley

Water, Together, Able

Thomas Henry Huxley (2008). “A Scientific Education”, p.107, Lulu.com

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The doctrine of transmigration was a means of constructing a plausible vindication of the ways of the cosmos to man; none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the grounds of inherent absurdity.

Thomas Huxley

Mean, Men, Way

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In fact a favourite problem of Tyndall is-Given the molecular forces in a mutton chop, deduce Hamlet or Faust therefrom. He is confident that the Physics of the Future will solve this easily.

Thomas Huxley

Science, Facts, Literature

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Every philosophical thinker hails it [The Origin of Species] as a veritable Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism.

Thomas Huxley

Philosophical, Gun, Philosopher

"Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews".

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There is far too much of the feeding-bottle in education and young people ought to be supplied with good intellectual food and then left to help themselves.

Thomas Huxley

Inspiring, Education, People

Thomas Henry Huxley, Cyril Bibby (1971). “T. H. Huxley on Education”, p.10, Cambridge University Press

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Genius, as an explosive power, beats gunpowder hollow.

Thomas Huxley

Power, Gunpowder, Genius

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

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I know of no department of natural science more likely to reward a man who goes into it thoroughly than anthropology. There is an immense deal to be done in the science pure and simple, and it is one of those branches of inquiry which brings one into contact with the great problems of humanity in every direction.

Thomas Huxley

Science, Simple, Men

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It does not matter how many tumbles you have in this life, so long as you do not get dirty when you tumble; it is only the people who have to stop to be washed and made clean, who must necessarily lose the race. And I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance

Thomas Huxley

Patience, Dirty, Race

Thomas Henry Huxley (1893). “Science & education”

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Surely it must be plain that an ingenious man could speculate without end on both sides, and find analogies for all his dreams. Nor does it help me to tell me that the aspirations of mankind

Thomas Huxley

Dream, Science, Men

Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.358, University of Georgia Press

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My reflection, when I first made myself master of the central idea of the 'Origin', was, 'How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!'

Thomas Huxley

Stupid, Science, Reflection

"On the Reception of the 'Origin of Species' " (1888)

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Some experience of popular lecturing had convinced me that the necessity of making things plain to uninstructed people, was one of the very best means of clearing up the obscure corners in one's own mind.

Thomas Huxley

Mean, Science, People

'Man's Place in Nature' (1894 ed.) preface

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The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome-not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.

Thomas Huxley

Art, Teaching, Rome

Thomas Henry Huxley (2011). “Collected Essays”, p.315, Cambridge University Press

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The dogma of the infallibility of the Bible is no more self-evident than is that of the infallibility of the popes.

Thomas Huxley

Bible, Self, Dogma

Thomas Henry Huxley (2012). “Collected Essays, Volume V Science and Christian Tradition: Essays”, p.40, tredition

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Cherish [Science], venerate her, follow her methods faithfully ... and the future of this people will be greater than the past.

Thomas Huxley

Past, Thinking, People

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No one who has lived in the world as long as you & I have, can entertain the pious delusion that it is engineered upon principles of benevolence... the cosmos remains always beautiful and profoundly interesting in every corner-and if I had as many lives as a cat I would leave no corner unexplored.

Thomas Huxley

Beautiful, Cat, Thinking

"Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest". Book by Adrian Desmond (p. 588), 1997.

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The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitiousfabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope, and with ignorance

Thomas Huxley

Religious, Ignorance, Hands

Thomas Henry Huxley (1892). “Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions”

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I doubt the fact, to begin with, but if it be so even, what is this but in grand words asking me to believe a thing because I like it.

Thomas Huxley

Believe, Doubt, Atheism

Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.358, University of Georgia Press

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Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a seance.

Thomas Huxley

Atheism, Guinea, Made

Thomas Henry Huxley (1903). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”

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It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism. That which Agnostics deny and repudiate, as immoral, is the contrary doctrine, that there are propositions which men ought to believe without logically satisfactory evidence; and that reprobation ought to attach to the profession of disbelief in such inadequately supported propositions.

Thomas Huxley

Believe, Men, Atheism

Thomas Henry Huxley (2012). “Lectures and Essays”, p.247, tredition

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Give unqualified assent to no propositions but those the truth of which is so clear and distinct that they cannot be doubted. The enunciation of this first great commandment of science consecrated doubt.

Thomas Huxley

Giving, Doubt, Unqualified

Thomas Henry Huxley (1872). “Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews”, p.322

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

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