Science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and enunciated truth. Thomas Huxley More Quotes by Thomas Huxley More Quotes From Thomas Huxley Next to being right in this world, the best of all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that sets you all straight again. Thomas Huxley nextfactsworld If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window. Thomas Huxley pieceschurchmen 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 wealthexercisemen People may talk about intellectual teaching, but what we principally want is the moral teaching. Thomas Huxley intellectualteachingpeople The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses. Thomas Huxley humilitymenfall Regarded anatomically, the resemblances between the foot of Man and the foot of the Gorilla are far more striking and important than the differences... be the differences between the hand and foot of Man and those of the Gorilla what they may the differences between those of the Gorilla and those of the lower Apes are much greater. Thomas Huxley differencesmenhands 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 crushviewsmen The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon. Thomas Huxley off-to-collegefocus-on-goalsladders I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything... Thomas Huxley possibilitytoo-muchscience Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only as far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club. Thomas Huxley common-sensecuttingscience Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest. Thomas Huxley determinationmenpast The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental. Thomas Huxley sentimentalwiseworld No mistake is so commonly made by clever people as that of assuming a cause to be bad because the arguments of its supporters are, to a great extent, nonsensical Thomas Huxley clevermistakepeople Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a seance. Thomas Huxley guineaatheismmade 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 atheismdoubtbelieve Let us have "sweet girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within. Thomas Huxley girlwisdomsweet 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 ignorancereligioushands 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 twosciencebook Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science, as strangled snakes beside that of Hercules Thomas Huxley cradlesnakeslying 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 rometeachingart
