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Quotes of the Day for 4 May 2009 – Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley was born at Ealing, near London, on this day in 1825. He had only two years of formal schooling but held short apprenticeships with three physicians before spending a year at a low-budget medical school at seventeen, at twenty he won the gold medals for anatomy and physiology in tests at the University of London. He didn't take the final exams that would have allowed him to practice medicine, but convinced the Royal Navy to make him 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 based on his research, the following year he was elected to the Council and later served as President. Despite his lack of formal education, he was regarded as the finest comparative anatomist of the age and he had a great influence on the establishment of scientific education. Although he never completely accepted Darwin's theory of natural selection, he was called "Darwin's Bulldog" for his active and effective destruction of all arguments for other theories.
You will find an expanded profile, photo, additional biographical links, and all quotes from this author on the author's Notable Quotable page.
The quotes:
The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us.
If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
There is no greater mistake than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued.
The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental.
The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear.
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
All from Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825 - 1895
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