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The god hypothesis is no longer of any pragmatic value for the interpretation or comprehension of nature, and indeed often stands in the way of better and truer interpretation. Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat.

Julian Huxley

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Julian Huxley
Age: 87 †
Born: 1887
Born: June 22
Died: 1975
Died: February 14
Biologist
Ethologist
Evolutionary Biologist
Film Director
Philosopher
Physiologist
Professor
Writer
London
England
Julian Sorell Huxley
Sir Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley
JULIAN HUXLEY
Often
Indeed
Fading
Nature
Smile
Comprehension
Better
Beginning
Hypothesis
Way
Value
Rulers
Cheshire
Longer
Cosmic
Truer
Lasts
Interpretation
Resemble
Last
Stands
Ruler
Values
Cat
Pragmatic

More quotes by Julian Huxley

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Evolution... is the most powerful and the most comprehensive idea that has ever arisen on Earth.
Julian Huxley
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As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends to compensatingly increase and the dictator... will do well to encourage that freedom in conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope, movies, and radio. It will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.
Julian Huxley
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Amoeba has her picture in the book, Proud Protozoon!-Yet beware of pride, All she can do is fatten and divide She cannot even read, or sew, or cook... The Worm can crawl But has no eyes to look. The Jelly-fish can swim But lacks a bride.
Julian Huxley
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If I am to be remembered, I hope it will not be primarily for my specialized scientific work, but as a generalist one to whom, enlarging Terence's words, nothing human and nothing in external nature was alien.
Julian Huxley
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We are beginning to realize that even the most fortunate people are living far below capacity, and that most human beings develop not more than a small fraction of their potential mental and spiritual efficiency. The human race, in fact, is surrounded by a large area of unrealized possibilities, a challenge to the spirit of exploration.
Julian Huxley
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The lowest strata are reproducing too fast. Therefore... they must not have too easy access to relief or hospital treatment lest the removal of the last check on natural selection should make it too easy for children to be produced or to survive long unemployment should be a ground for sterilisation.
Julian Huxley
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...it is curiosity, initiative, originality, and the ruthless application of honesty that count in research- much more than feats of logic and memory alone.
Julian Huxley
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We all know how the size of sums of money appears to vary in a remarkable way according as they are being paid in or paid out.
Julian Huxley
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This earth is one of the rare spots in the cosmos where mind has flowered. Man is a product of nearly three billion years of evolution, in whose person the evolutionary process has at last become conscious of itself and its possibilities. Whether he likes it or not, he is responsible for the whole further evolution of our planet.
Julian Huxley
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The human race will be the cancer of the planet.
Julian Huxley
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Evolution is nothing but matter become conscious of itself.
Julian Huxley
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Darwinism removed the whole idea of God as the creator from the sphere of rational discussion.
Julian Huxley
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Many people assert that this abandonment of the god hypothesis means the abandonment of all religion and all moral sanctions. This is simply not true. But it does mean, once our relief at jettisoning an outdated piece of ideological furniture is over, that we must construct something to take its place.
Julian Huxley
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The scientific doctrine of progress is destined to replace not only the myth of progress, but all other myths of human earthly destiny. It will inevitably become one of the cornerstones of man's theology, or whatever may be the future substitute for theology, and the most important external support for human ethics.
Julian Huxley
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It is essential for evolution to become the central core of any educational system, because it is evolution, in the broad sense, that links inorganic nature with life, and the stars with the earth, and matter with mind, and animals with man. Human history is a continuation of biological evolution in a different form.
Julian Huxley
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Quantity of material production can only be a means to a further end, not an end in itself.
Julian Huxley
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The zestful but scientific exploration of possibilities and of the techniques for realizing them will make our hopes rational, and will set our ideals within the framework of reality, by showing how much of them are indeed realizable.
Julian Huxley
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The sense of spiritual relief which comes from rejecting the idea of God as a supernatural being is enormous.
Julian Huxley
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To speculate without facts is to attempt to enter a house of which one has not the key, by wandering aimlessly round and round, searching the walls and now and then peeping through the windows. Facts are the key.
Julian Huxley