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Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.

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
Stills
Wants
Lays
Still
Alone
Discover
Ascertain
Ideas
Law
Driven
Cravings
Knowledge
Seeking
Desiring
Spiritual
Morality
Foundations
Natural
Foundation
Craving
Science
Laws
Satisfy
Found
Comfort
Conduct

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That which endures is not one or another association of living forms, but the process of which the cosmos is the product, and of which these are among the transitory expressions.
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The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.
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. . . I fail to find a trace [in Protestantism] of any desire to set reason free. The most that can be discovered is a proposal to change masters. From being a slave of the papacy, the intellect was to become the serf of the Bible.
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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 only do I disbelieve in the need for compensation, but I believe that the seeking for rewards and punishments out of this lifeleads men to a ruinous ignorance of the fact that their inevitable rewards and punishments are here.
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The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.
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It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.
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Fact I know and Law I know but what is this Necessity, save an empty shadow of my own mind's throwing?
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There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.
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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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A well-worn adage advises those who set out upon a great enterprise to count the cost, yet some of the greatest enterprises have succeeded because the people who undertook them did not count the cost.
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What would become of the garden if the gardener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds and trespassers as he would like to be treated, if he were in their place?
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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.
Thomas Huxley
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In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.
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I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of his fellow men
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Whatever part of the animal fabric whatever series of muscles, whatever viscera might be selected for comparison the result would be the same the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla and the Man.
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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.
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Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.
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Books are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science.
Thomas Huxley