Thomas Henry Huxley on Atheism
1825–1895 England
← All quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley
9 quotes
Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.
The Great Quotations (1960)
I do not say think as I think, but think in my way. Fear no shadows, least of all in that great spectre of personal unhappiness which binds half the world to orthodoxy.
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.
Reply to Charles Kingsley (1860)
Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth.
The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment ... not authority.
That depends on how you, the public, deal with science. Cherish her, venerate her, follow her methods faithfully and implicitly in their application to all branches of human thought and the future of this people will be greater than the past.
...claiming my right to follow whethersoever science should lead... it is as respectable to be modified monkey as modified dirt.
I am content with nothing, restless and ambitious... and I despise myself for the vanity, which formed half the stimulus to my exertions. Oh would that I were one of those plodding wise fools who having once set their hand to the plough go on nothing doubting."
I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel.