Thomas Henry Huxley

I have no doubt that, in the future, the study of the human mind will be placed on a new basis.

Truth is a thing, not a word; it is the reality of things, not the mere name of them.

The question of all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and is more interesting than any other, is the ascertainment of the place which man occupies in nature and of his relations to the universe of things.

I neither affirm nor deny the immortality of man. I see no reason for believing in it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it.

Life is a game of chess, in which we have to play with the pieces that are given us.

The world is a great game, and the players are the forces of nature.

The only way to learn is to do.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.

The world is a great book, of which we are but the readers.

The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind.

The history of science is the history of the gradual discovery of the fact that the laws of nature are invariable.

The only way to avoid error is to get rid of the habit of thinking.

I am a man of science, and I have no other creed than that which is forced upon me by the facts of nature.

Science is, I believe, nothing but trained and organized common sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only as far as the tactics of a veteran differ from those of a recruit in the field.

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature may lead, or you shall learn nothing.

I have no doubt that I am a better man for having been a poor man.

I am not an optimist, but I am a meliorist. I believe that the world can be made better, and that we have a duty to try to make it so.

The most important thing in life is to learn to love.

I have been called an agnostic, and I am not ashamed of the name.