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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

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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
Cannot
Contrary
Truth
Certainly
May
Necessary
Ideas
Simply
Belief
Affirm
Fact
Presumption
Idea
Conceive
Facts
Proof

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Trust a witness in all matters in which neither his self-interest, his passions, his prejudices, nor the love of the marvellous is strongly concerned. When they are involved, require corroborative evidence in exact proportion to the contravention of probability by the thing testified.
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The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment... not authority.
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Friendship involves many things but, above all the power of going outside oneself and appreciating what is noble and loving in another.
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The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But it is quite another thing to open the box.
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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.
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There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.
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Science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense.
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If individuality has no play, society does not advance if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
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And when you cannot prove that people are wrong, but only that they are absurd, the best course is to let them alone.
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Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists.
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It ought not to be unpleasant to say that which one honestly believes or disbelieves. That it so constantly is painful to do so, is quite enough obstacle to the progress of mankind in that most valuable of all qualities, honesty of word or of deed.
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Books are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science.
Thomas Huxley
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Science is simply common sense at its best.
Thomas Huxley
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Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium.
Thomas Huxley
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In truth, the laboratory is the forecourt of the temple of philosophy, and whoso has not offered sacrifices and undergone purification there has little chance of admission into the sanctuary.
Thomas Huxley
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It is one of the most saddening things in life that, try as we may, we can never be certain of making people happy, whereas we can almost always be certain of making them unhappy.
Thomas Huxley
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A man who speaks out honestly and fearlessly that which he knows, and that which he believes, will always enlist the good will and the respect, however much he may fail in winning the assent, of his fellow men.
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Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion!
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Not far from the invention of fire we must rank the invention of doubt.
Thomas Huxley
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I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything especially as I am now so much occupied with theology but I don't see my way to your conclusion.
Thomas Huxley