1825-1895, British Biologist, Educator
A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Facts]
All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Common Sense]
Books are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Books and Reading]
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Knowledge]
Fact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty shadow of my own mind's throwing?
Thomas H. Huxley – [Necessity]
I know of no department of natural science more likely to reward a man who goes into it thoroughly than anthropology. There is an immense deal to be done in the science pure and simple, and it is one of those branches of inquiry which brings one into contact with the great problems of humanity in every direction.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Science and Scientists]
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?
Thomas H. Huxley – [Danger]
In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Science and Scientists]
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Truth]
It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organization upon the natural organization of the body.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Education]
It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Right and Rightness]
It is the fate of new truths to begin as heresies and end and superstitions.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Truth]
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Consequences]
Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds your stuff to any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends on what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat flour from peas cods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Mathematics]
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.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Methods]
Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Perseverance]
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a person's training begins, it is probably the last lesson a person learns thoroughly.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Education]
Science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Common Sense]
Science is simply common sense at its best–that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Science and Scientists]
Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
Thomas H. Huxley – [Facts]