The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin. Thomas Huxley More Quotes by Thomas Huxley More Quotes From Thomas Huxley 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 education inspiring people It is better to read a little and thoroughly than cram a crude undigested mass into my head, though it be great in quantity. Thomas Huxley education littles inspiring 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 rome spiritual civilization There is no absurdity in theology so great that you cannot parallel it by a greater absurdity in Nature. Thomas Huxley nature natural science Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium. Thomas Huxley equilibrium life science 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 cat beautiful thinking 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 science knowledge Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. Thomas Huxley wisdom wise science It ought not to be unpleasant to say that which one honestly believes or disbelieves. That it so constantly is painful to do so, is quite enough obstacle to the progress of mankind in that most valuable of all qualities, honesty of word or of deed. Thomas Huxley honesty believe religion 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 unqualified doubt giving To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs would be about as reasonable as to object to live one's life with due thought for the morrow because no man can be sure he will alive an hour hence. Thomas Huxley alive intellectual men The facts of variability, of the struggle for existence, of adaptation to conditions, were notorious enough; but none of us had suspected that the road to the heart of the species problem lay through them, until Darwin and Wallace dispelled the darkness. Thomas Huxley darkness struggle heart The occurrence of successive forms of life upon our globe is an historical fact, which cannot be disputed; and the relation of these successive forms, as stages of evolution of the same type, is established in various cases. Thomas Huxley evolution historical facts There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word, but none without ghosts. Thomas Huxley without-god savages ghost It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews--Micah, Isaiah, and the rest--who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles. Thomas Huxley afterlife levels may Cherish [Science], venerate her, follow her methods faithfully ... and the future of this people will be greater than the past. Thomas Huxley people past thinking 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 Do what you can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and fearing alone. Thomas Huxley strategy ought Claiming my right to follow whethersoever science should lead... it is as respectable to be modified monkey as modified dirt. Thomas Huxley monkeys respect thinking 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 finals twenties ignorance
