Thomas Henry Huxley

That mysterious independent variable of political calculation, Opinion.

The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.

I know no more of the future than the next man; and if the Fates intend that I shall weave the warp of this world's history, I shall do so with the firm conviction that the end will be better than the beginning.

Ecclesiologists should be aware that the supernatural is not to be proved by miracles.

The immortality of man is as yet a hypothesis, but if it proves true, it is the greatest of all truths.

A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.

Time, whose tooth gnaws away the edge of everything.

The soul and the body are the two shores between which the stream of sensation incessantly flows.

I have no special gifts. I am only passionately curious.

The universe has no purpose, but we ought to have one.

History warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.

Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the potter.

It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.

My last words to you, my son, are: 'Keep a stiff upper lip.'

Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the Soul within.

The world needs loss of faith to gain knowledge.

Science is, I believe, nothing but trained and organized common sense.

The most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

Scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

The great tragedy of science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.