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Quote by Thomas Huxley

“The sceptics end in the infidelity which asserts the problem to be insoluble, or in the atheism which denies the existence of any orderly progress and governance of things: the men of genius propound solutions which grow into systems of Theology or of Philosophy, or veiled in musical language which suggests more than it asserts, take the shape of the Poetry of an epoch.”

Quote by Thomas Huxley

Book:The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

Work

The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

This compilation includes Huxley's influential writings on science, ethics, and society, showcasing his contributions to the fields of biology and evolutionary theory. more

Author

Thomas Huxley, a British biologist, was a staunch supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution. Renowned for his research in comparative anatomy, embryology, paleontology, and philosophy, Huxley made significant contributions to the field of biology. He had a profound influence on science, not only through his support of Darwin's theory of evolution but also through his role as a science popularizer and advocate for science education. more

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“Each such answer to the great question, invariably asserted by the followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century, or it may be for twenty: but, as invariably, Time proves each reply to have been a mere approximation to the truth tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors.”

Source: The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

“Within the last fifty years, the extraordinary growth of every department of physical science has spread among us mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a character that a new ecdysis seems imminent.”

Years Character Seems Lasts Growth Extraordinary Spread Fifty Department Physical Science

Book:The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

Source: The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

“Even in the important matter of cranial capacity, Men differ more widely from one another than they do from the Apes; while the lowest Apes differ as much, in proportion, from the highest, as the latter does from Man.”

Men Doe Important Matter Highest Capacity Proportion Latter Lowest Apes

Book:The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

Source: The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

“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.”

Men Might Would Be Animal Results He Man Series Muscles Comparison Fabric Apes Selected Gorillas

Book:Collected essays

Source: Collected essays

“Regarded anatomically, the resemblances between the foot of Man and the foot of the Gorilla are far more striking and important than the differences... be the differences between the hand and foot of Man and those of the Gorilla what they may the differences between those of the Gorilla and those of the lower Apes are much greater.”

Men May Important Hands Differences Greater Feet Apes Resemblance Gorillas Hands And Feet

Author:Thomas Huxley

“The whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in view of the intimate relations between Man and the rest of the living world; and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed from the inorganic to the organic from blind force to conscious intellect and will.”

“I have endeavoured to show that no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn between the animal world and ourselves; and I may add the expression of my belief that the attempt to draw a physical distinction is equally futile, and that even the highest faculties of feeling and of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life.”

World May Shows Feelings Form Belief Lines Animal Expression Succeed Highest Draws Absolutes Add Intellect Scales Distinction Faculty Animal World

Author:Thomas Huxley

“It seems safe to look forward to the time when the conception of attractive and repulsive forces, having served its purpose as a useful piece of scientific scaffolding, will be replaced by the deduction of the phenomena known as attraction and repulsion, from the general laws of motion.”

Looks Seems Law Purpose Force Known Pieces Safe Attraction Attractive Conception Replaced Deductions Scaffolding Repulsion Laws Of Motion Attraction And Repulsion

Author:Thomas Huxley

“Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process; the end of which is not the survival of those who may happen to be the fittest, in respect of the whole of the conditions which obtain, but of those who are ethically the best.”

May Mean Ends Whole Happens Social Process Steps Progress Conditions Survival Ethical Cosmic Every Step Social Progress Substitution

Book:The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

Source: The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley

“Mr. Darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as I am aware, inconsistent with any known biological fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts of Development, of Comparative Anatomy, of Geographical Distribution, and of Palaeontology, become connected together, and exhibit a meaning such as they never possessed before; and I, for one, am fully convinced that if not precisely true, that hypothesis is as near an approximation to the truth as, for example, the Copernican hypothesis was to the true theory of the planetary motions.”

Ifs Facts Together Known Example Theory Development Connected Convinced Contrary Possessed Hypothesis Distribution Exhibits Anatomy Inconsistent Approximation

Author:Thomas Huxley