Thomas Huxley

Thomas Huxley

Biologist, Anthropologist

Thomas Huxley was a prominent English biologist known for his defense of Darwin's theory of evolution and his contributions to scientific thought.

Men Science Believe Education Lying People
Born
February 4, 1825
Died
June 29, 1895
Quotes
294
Rank
#715

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Thomas Huxley quotes (page 8 of 15)

294 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not led him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle."

Strong Science Intelligent
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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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."

Giving Doubt Unqualified
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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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."

Science Simple Men
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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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."

Water Together Able
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions."

Ocean Land Generations
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organization upon the natural organization of the body."

Education Organization Body
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued."

Mistake Opinion Conclusion
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"It is a popular delusion that the scientific enquirer is under an obligation not to go beyond generalisation of observed facts...but anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond the facts, rarely get as far."

Science Facts Delusion
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying."

Life Success Trust
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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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."

Lying Science Simple
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"The vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical faculties, by no mental processes other than those which are practicedby every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones."

Animal Shoes Scientific Method
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life--always growing and increasing--is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests."

Running Class White
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them."

Life Eye Men
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"There is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite."

Infinite Possibility
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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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."

Ocean Sea Purpose
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"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."

Struggle Heart Darkness
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Thomas Huxley Biologist, Anthropologist
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"I protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and would up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer."

Morning Freedom Science
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