Quote

It is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible.

Thomas Huxley

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thomas Huxley
Age: 70 †
Born: 1825
Born: May 4
Died: 1895
Died: June 29
Anatomist
Anthropologist
Biologist
Carcinologist
Ichthyologist
Linguist
Naturalist
Paleontologist
Philosopher
Photographer
Physiologist
Lexington
Kentucky
T. H. Huxley
Huxley
Math
Mathematics
Duty
Firsts
First
Intelligible
Hypothesis
Statistics
Mathematical

More quotes by Thomas Huxley

Image
It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.
Thomas Huxley
Image
To say that an idea is necessary is simply to affirm that we cannot conceive the contrary and the fact that we cannot conceive the contrary of any belief may be a presumption, but is certainly no proof, of its truth.
Thomas Huxley
Image
If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window.
Thomas Huxley
Image
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
Thomas Huxley
Image
We are prone to see what lies behind our eyes, rather than what apprears before them.
Thomas Huxley
Image
In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.
Thomas Huxley
Image
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.
Thomas Huxley
Image
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
Image
The man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good and even great, is, after all, only half a man.
Thomas Huxley
Image
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.
Thomas Huxley
Image
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.
Thomas Huxley
Image
Let us have sweet girl graduates by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom and the golden hair will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within.
Thomas Huxley
Image
If the hypothesis of evolution is true, living matter must have arisen from non-living matter for by the hypothesis the condition of the globe was at one time such, that living matter could not have existed in it, life being entirely incompatible with the gaseous state.
Thomas Huxley
Image
It is not what we believe, but why we believe it. Moral responsibility lies in diligently weighing the evidence. We must actively doubt we have to scrutinize our views, not take them on trust. No virtue attached to blindly accepting orthodoxy, however 'venerable'.
Thomas Huxley
Image
The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals.
Thomas Huxley
Image
The dogma of the infallibility of the Bible is no more self-evident than is that of the infallibility of the popes.
Thomas Huxley
Image
Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium.
Thomas Huxley
Image
If individuality has no play, society does not advance if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
Thomas Huxley
Image
The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.
Thomas Huxley
Image
God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me.
Thomas Huxley