Quotes from Thomas Huxley

A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words.

Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.

Fact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty shadow of my own mind's throwing?

Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.

Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.

Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds your stuff to any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends on what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat flour from peas cods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.

Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists.

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not it is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.

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.

Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense.

The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But we also know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.

The strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone.

There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.

Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect are the qualities which make a real gentleman or lady.

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. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.

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

For once reality and his brains came into contact and the result was fatal.

If a man cannot do brain work without stimulants of any kind, he had better turn to hand work it is an indication on Nature's part that she did not mean him to be a head worker.

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

What men of science want is only a fair day's wages for more than a fair day's work.

I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.

Whatever evil voices may rage, Science, secure among the powers that are eternal, will do her work and be blessed.