Thomas Huxley Quotes

The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.

Science, we are repeatedly told, is the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypotheses. Religion, by contrast, is based on faith. The term 'doubting Thomas' well illustrates the difference.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

No one has a monopoly on truth, and science continues to advance. Yesterday's heresies may be tomorrow's conventional wisdom.

Our true mentor in life is science.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the later ignorance.

Science is very vibrant. There are always new observations to be found. And it's all in the interest in challenging the authority that came before you. That's consistent with the punk rock ethos that suggests that you should not take what people say at face value.

It is probably safe to say that all the changes of factual knowledge which have led to the relativity theory, resulting in a very great theoretical development, are completely trivial from any point of view except their relevance to the structure of a theoretical system.

Scientific knowledge is a kind of discourse.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

In the history of science, we often find that the study of some natural phenomenon has been the starting point in the development of a new branch of knowledge.

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.

It is important that students bring a certain …, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.

Mainstream science starts as heresy.

The great tragedy of Science --- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact

You don’t make progress in science by finding things that are right. You make progress by finding things that are wrong. You won’t win the Nobel Prize by showing Einstein was right. You win the prize by showing that he was wrong.

One of the most important aspects of science that I learned from my father was to distrust authority.

Only by ignorance is science threatened.

School has no task more important than to teach strict thought, cautious judgment, and logical conclusions, hence it must pay no attention to what hinders these operations, such as religion, for instance.

Philosophy is empty if it isn't based on science. Science discovers, philosophy interprets.

Science is not wisdom.