Thomas Huxley

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

I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of his fellow men.

The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But it is quite another thing to open the box.

Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing.

I protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and would up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer.

The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.

Learn what is true in order to do what is right.

Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion!

It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us.