It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules; and history records that whenever science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that science often overcomes traditional beliefs, which can be rigid and resistant to change.
In this quote, Thomas Huxley highlights the historical conflict between scientific inquiry and orthodox beliefs, implying that science is a progressive force that challenges and often prevails over outdated ideologies. He metaphorically compares extinguished theologians to defeated opponents of science, emphasizing how established beliefs must yield in the face of evidence and reason, ultimately depicting science as a vital force for discovery and understanding in human history.
Themes
ScienceOrthodoxyTruthConflictKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of scientific method versus tradition.
More from Thomas Huxley
All quotes βThe child who has been taught to make an accurate elevation, plan, and section of a pint pot has had an admirable training in accuracy of eye and hand.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Let us have "sweet girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within.
Thomas HuxleyRead
The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.
Thomas HuxleyRead
It is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Similar quotes
Science is now the craft of the manipulation, substitution and deflection of the forces of nature. What I see coming is a gigantic slaughterhouse, an Auschwitz, in which valuable enzymes, hormones, and so on will be extracted instead of gold teeth.
Erwin ChargaffRead
Cosmologists have attempted to account for the day-to-day laws you find in textbooks in terms of fundamental 'superlaws,' but the superlaws themselves must still be accepted as brute facts. So maybe the ultimate laws of nature will always be off-limits to science.
Paul DaviesRead
The more one chases the quanta, the better they hide themselves.
Albert EinsteinRead
Facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away while scientists debate rival theories for explaining them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air pending the outcome.
Stephen Jay GouldRead
It is hard to overstate how valuable it is to have all the incredible tools that are used for human disease to study plants.
Bill GatesRead
It was basic research in the photoelectric field-in the photoelectric effect that would one day lead to solar panels. It was basic research in physics that would eventually produce the CAT scan. The calculations of today's GPS satellites are based on the equations that Einstein put to paper more than a century ago.
Barack ObamaRead