Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

Thomas Huxley Biologist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United Kingdom
  • Born: May 4, 1825
  • Died: Jun 29, 1895

Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS FLS was an English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Huxley's famous debate in 1860 with Samuel Wilberforce was a key moment in the wider acceptance of evolution and in his own career. Huxley had been planning to leave Oxford on the previous day, but, after an encounter with Robert Chambers, the author of Vestiges, he changed his mind and decided to join the debate. Wilberforce was coached by Richard Owen, against whom Huxley also debated about whether humans were closely related to apes.

Huxley was slow to accept some of Darwin's ideas, such as gradualism, and was undecided about natural selection, but despite this he was wholehearted in his public support of Darwin. Instrumental in developing scientific education in Britain, he fought against the more extreme versions of religious tradition.

In 1869 Huxley coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his uncertainty of whether or not a god exists. Use of that term has continued to the present day.

Huxley had little formal schooling and was virtually self-taught. He became perhaps the finest comparative anatomist of the latter 19th century.

My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right. experience

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. great & knowledge

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? knowledge

The more rapidly truth is spread among mankind the better it will be for them. Only let us be sure that it is the truth. truth

The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear. fear & hope

Economy does not lie in sparing money, but in spending it wisely. money

Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact. science

The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. great & science

Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth. science & truth

In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact. work

Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing. science

My business is to teach my aspirations to confirm themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. business

Patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness. patience

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. best & science

The scientific imagination always restrains itself within the limits of probability. imagination

Books are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science. money & science

Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah. science

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins. best

Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth. freedom, strength & truth

The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect. great, happiness & peace

Science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense. science

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. learning

All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified. truth

Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture and very much to our credit. nature

History warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions. history

No slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man. freedom

Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth. time & truth

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification. faith & science

Science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and enunciated truth. science & truth

Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his brother. equality

No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life. science

Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion! religion

Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed. science