Most of us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore them … - Thomas Henry Huxley

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Most of us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore them altogether, or to smother the investigating spirit under the featherbed of respected and respectable tradition. But, in every age, one or two restless spirits, blessed with that constructive genius, which can only build on a secure foundation, or cursed with the mere spirit of scepticism, are unable to follow in the well-worn and comfortable track of their forefathers and contemporaries, and unmindful of thorns and stumbling-blocks, strike out into paths of their own.

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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
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Additional quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

I now propose briefly to... set forth, in a form intelligible to those who possess no special acquaintance with anatomical science, the chief facts upon which all conclusions respecting the nature and the extent of the bonds which connect man with the brute world must be based: I shall then indicate the one immediate conclusion which, in my judgment, is justified by those facts, and I shall finally discuss the bearing of that conclusion upon the hypotheses which have been entertained respecting the Origin of Man.

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My business is to teach my aspirations to confirm themselves to facts, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.

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