Thomas Huxley Quotes

Most popular Thomas Huxley Quotes

Science is simply common sense at its best. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Science is simply common sense at its best.
— Thomas Huxley

science

Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.
— Thomas Huxley Aphorisms and Reflections; From the works of T. H. Huxley

science dogma

The great end of life is not knowledge but action. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
— Thomas Huxley

action

The birth of science was the death of superstition. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The birth of science was the death of superstition.
— Thomas Huxley

science superstitions

Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium.
— Thomas Huxley

biology

Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.
— Thomas Huxley
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
— Thomas Huxley

mistakes rational thinking

Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing.
— Thomas Huxley Aphorisms and Reflections; From the works of T. H. Huxley

science science & art art

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
— Thomas Huxley

learning

Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.
— Thomas Huxley

time

Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
— Thomas Huxley Science and Culture

common sense consequences

There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. - Thomas Huxley quote.
There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.
— Thomas Huxley On Medical Education

failure

In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact. - Thomas Huxley quote.
In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.
— Thomas Huxley
The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
— Thomas Huxley

science

The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
— Thomas Huxley
Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

patience purpose of life

It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions. - Thomas Huxley quote.
It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.
— Thomas Huxley

truth superstitions

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? - Thomas Huxley quote.
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?
— Thomas Huxley Science and Culture

knowledge

There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued. - Thomas Huxley quote.
There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.
— Thomas Huxley

opinions

Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science, as the strangled snakes besides that of Hercules. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science, as the strangled snakes besides that of Hercules.
— Thomas Huxley

religion science

Truly is has been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which the Infinite may be seen. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Truly is has been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which the Infinite may be seen.
— Thomas Huxley Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews

facts

If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes. - Thomas Huxley quote.
If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
— Thomas Huxley Methods and Results: Essays

individuality

History warns us, however, that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions. - Thomas Huxley quote.
History warns us, however, that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.
— Thomas Huxley The Origin of Species

truth mistakes

The chessboard is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call laws of nature. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The chessboard is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call laws of nature.
— Thomas Huxley
For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for he who has the eyes to see them. - Thomas Huxley quote.
For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for he who has the eyes to see them.
— Thomas Huxley
In science, as in life, learning and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is the source of the latter. - Thomas Huxley quote.
In science, as in life, learning and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is the source of the latter.
— Thomas Huxley

science

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 quote.
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

old age advice

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
— Thomas Huxley Science and Education: Essays
But the great tragedy of Science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact—which is so constantly being enacted under the eyes of philosophers... - Thomas Huxley quote.
But the great tragedy of Science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact—which is so constantly being enacted under the eyes of philosophers...
— Thomas Huxley

science hypothesis

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. - Thomas Huxley quote.
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.
— Thomas Huxley Nineteenth Century

certainty

The medieval university looked backwards; it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge.  The modern university looks forward, and is a factory of new knowledge. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The medieval university looked backwards; it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge.  The modern university looks forward, and is a factory of new knowledge.
— Thomas Huxley

college

The improver of natural science absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties: blind faith the one unpardonable sin. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The improver of natural science absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties: blind faith the one unpardonable sin.
— Thomas Huxley

skepticism science

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. - Thomas Huxley quote.
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
— Thomas Huxley Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley

facts

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 again. - Thomas Huxley quote.
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 again.

politics

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 quote.
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 Aphorisms and Reflections

obstacles

The quarrels of theologians and philosophers have not been about religion, but about philosophy; and philosophers not unfrequently seem to entertain the same feeling toward theologians that sportsmen cherish toward poachers. - Thomas Huxley quote.
The quarrels of theologians and philosophers have not been about religion, but about philosophy; and philosophers not unfrequently seem to entertain the same feeling toward theologians that sportsmen cherish toward poachers.
— Thomas Huxley Hume

philosophy religion

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 quote.
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

economics wealth

The great tragedy of Science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
— Thomas Huxley Discourses: Biological and Geological Essays

facts science

It is the customary fate of new truths, to begin as heresies, and to end as superstitions.
— Thomas Huxley

progress truth