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

Thomas Huxley

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Thomas Huxley
Age: 70 †
Born: 1825
Born: May 4
Died: 1895
Died: June 29
Anatomist
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Carcinologist
Ichthyologist
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Philosopher
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Lexington
Kentucky
T. H. Huxley
Huxley
Men
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Simply
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More quotes by Thomas Huxley

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In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.
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The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.
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I am content with nothing, restless and ambitious... and I despise myself for the vanity, which formed half the stimulus to my exertions. Oh would that I were one of those plodding wise fools who having once set their hand to the plough go on nothing doubting.
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There are savages without God in any proper sense of the word, but none without ghosts.
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It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.
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The doctrine of transmigrationÂ… was a means of constructing a plausible vindication of the ways of the cosmos to man Â… none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the grounds of inherent absurdity.
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I do not say think as I think, but think in my way. Fear no shadows, least of all in that great spectre of personal unhappiness which binds half the world to orthodoxy.
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The man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good and even great, is, after all, only half a man.
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I have never been able to understand why pigeon-shooting at Hurlingham should be refined and polite, while a rat-killing match in Whitechapel is low.
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Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature.
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The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.
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It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews--Micah, Isaiah, and the rest--who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.
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The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
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If the perpetual oscillation of nations between anarchy and despotism is to be replaced by the steady march of self-restraining freedom, it will be because men will gradually bring themselves to deal with political, as they now deal with scientific questions.
Thomas Huxley
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Surely it must be plain that an ingenious man could speculate without end on both sides, and find analogies for all his dreams. Nor does it help me to tell me that the aspirations of mankind
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It is better to read a little and thoroughly than cram a crude undigested mass into my head, though it be great in quantity.
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A drop of water is as powerful as a thunder-bolt.
Thomas Huxley
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To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs would be about as reasonable as to object to live one's life with due thought for the morrow because no man can be sure he will alive an hour hence.
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I doubt the fact, to begin with, but if it be so even, what is this but in grand words asking me to believe a thing because I like it.
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A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words.
Thomas Huxley