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Quotes of the Day for 4 May 2005 - Thomas Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley was born at Ealing, near London, on this day in 1825. At seventeen he started his medical studies, at twenty he won the gold medals for anatomy and physiology in tests at the University of London. At this time he joined the Royal Navy and became ship's surgeon on a journey into the South Pacific during which he studied and classified marine micro-organisms, on his return he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. And it goes on, the rest of his life was marked by similar genius and efforts. Fortunately for us, he was not only a biologist and paleontologist, but he was quite a philosopher.

The foundation of all morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

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.

The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?
     - All from Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825 - 1895

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