What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the ea… - Thomas Henry Huxley

" "
What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence did it come? You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to no result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, incapable of refutation and of verification. If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which some of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Sources available for members. Sign up free to see where this quote comes from

English

Collect this quote

About Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May, 1825 – 29 June 1895) was a British biologist. A prominent defender of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, he was the grandfather of Julian, Aldous and Andrew Huxley. He was a critic of organised religion and devised the words "agnostic" and "agnosticism" to describe his own views.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Also Known As: Darwin’s Bulldog

Alternative Names: T. H. Huxley • Huxley • Prof. Huxley

All quotes from Thomas Henry Huxley Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Thomas Henry Huxley:

Charles Darwin David Hume Stephen Jay Gould Bertrand Russell Richard Dawkins

Additional quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley

It appears to us to be one of the many peculiar merits of that [Mr. Darwin's] hypothesis that it involves no belief in a necessary and continual progress of organisms.

Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process; the end of which is not the survival of those who may happen to be the fittest, in respect of the whole of the conditions which obtain, but of those who are ethically the best.

I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance — that there are a great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are.

What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence did it come? You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnat… - Thomas Henry Huxley

About Thomas Henry Huxley

Also Known As

Share this quote as an image

Additional quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley