306 Quotes by Thomas Huxley

The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.

Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends upon what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.

There is far too much of the feeding-bottle in education and young people ought to be supplied with good intellectual food and then left to help themselves.

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.

It is better to read a little and thoroughly than cram a crude undigested mass into my head, though it be great in quantity.

Creation,' in the ordinary sense of the word, is perfectly conceivable. I find no difficulty in conceiving that, at some former period, this universe was not in existence, and that it made its appearance in six days (or instantaneously, if that is preferred), in consequence of the volition of some preexisting Being.

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins.

...claiming my right to follow whethersoever science should lead... it is as respectable to be modified monkey as modified dirt.

No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average Negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man.....it is simply incredible to think that.....he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites.