Thomas Huxley Quotes
Thomas Henry Huxley was an English biologist, philosopher of science, and public lecturer, famous in his lifetime as Darwin's bulldog for his vigorous defense of evolutionary theory after the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. Largely self-taught, he rose from the British Navy's medical service to become the leading English popularizer of natural science and a fellow and President of the Royal Society. The quotes below are attributed to Thomas Huxley, organized by topic.
Browse Thomas Huxley by topic
Thomas Huxley on Death
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“If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape. Response, as quoted in Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977) by Alan L. Mackay.”
A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there was an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man — a man of restless and versatile intellect — who not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them with aimless rhetoric, and
Thomas Huxley on God
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Attributed to Thomas Huxley:
“Agnosticism is not a creed, but a method.”
Thomas Huxley on Knowledge
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“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”
A favourite comment, inscribed on his memorial at Ealing, quoted in Nature Vol. XLVI (30 October 1902), p. 658 -
“Sit down before fact as a little child, prepared to give up every preconceived notion.”
Letter to Charles Kingsley -
“Darwiniana: the Origin of Species (1860)”
It is true that if philosophers have suffered their cause has been amply avenged. Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules ; and history records that whenever science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed if not annihilated; scotched , if not slain. But -
“About Richard Owen 's view on human and ape brains, in a letter to J.D. Hooker (27 April 1861)”
The fact is he made a prodigious blunder in commencing the attack, and now his only chance is to be silent and let people forget the exposure. I do not believe that in the whole history of science there is a case of any man of reputation getting himself into such a contemptible position.
Thomas Huxley on Life
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“Life is too short to occupy oneself with the slaying of the slain more than once.”
One of a series of exchanges when Richard Owen repeated generally repudiated claims about the Gorilla brain in a Royal Institution lecture. Athenaeum (13 April 1861) p. 498; Browne Vol 2, p. 159
Thomas Huxley on Mind
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Attributed to Thomas Huxley:
“The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.”
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“A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there was an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man — a man of restless and versatile intellect — who not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them with aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”
One account of his famous response to Samuel Wilberforce , who during a debate had sarcastically questioned: "whether he was descended from an ape on his grandmother's side or his grandfather's" (30 June 1860), as quoted in Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (1900) edited by Leonard Huxley. There were no precise transcripts of this exchange made at the time, but only various accounts wh
Thomas Huxley on Nature
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“On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences" (1854)”
I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his own share with more courage and submission ; and will, at any rate, view with suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government, which would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake, — to be corrected by and by. On the other hand, -
“To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.”
On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences" (1854) p. 29 -
“On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences" (1854) p. 29”
To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.
Thomas Huxley on Time
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“The fact is he made a prodigious blunder in commencing the attack, and now his only chance is to be silent and let people forget the exposure. I do not believe that in the whole history of science there is a case of any man of reputation getting himself into such a contemptible position.”
About Richard Owen 's view on human and ape brains, in a letter to J.D. Hooker (27 April 1861)
Thomas Huxley on Truth
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“The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
Presidential Address at the British Association, "Biogenesis and abiogenesis" (1870) ; later published in Collected Essays , Vol. 8, p. 229
Things actually not said by Thomas Huxley
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Thomas Huxley but are in fact from someone else. Did Thomas Huxley say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Thomas Huxley say this? No.
“The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's time.”
Sydney J. Harris , as quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1989) by Robert Andrews; also quoted as: "...a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure."