238 Quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley

There can be no doubt that the existing Fauna and Flora is but the last term of a long series of equally numerous contemporary species, which have succeeded one another, by the slow and gradual substitution of species for species, in the vast interval of time which has elapsed between the deposition of the earliest fossiliferous strata and the present day.

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, whether you like it or not.

That which struck the present writer most forcibly on his first perusal of the 'Origin of Species' was the conviction that Teleology, as commonly understood, had received its deathblow at Mr. Darwin's hands. For the teleological argument runs thus: an organ or organism (A) is precisely fitted to perform a function or purpose (B); therefore it was specially constructed to perform that function.

There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.

No slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man.

The rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature.

If there is anything in the world which I do firmly believe in, it is the universal validity of the law of causation.

Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

And when you cannot prove that people are wrong, but only that they are absurd, the best course is to let them alone.