Thomas Huxley Quotes About Evidence
-
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.
→ -
It is not what we believe, but why we believe it. Moral responsibility lies in diligently weighing the evidence. We must actively doubt; we have to scrutinize our views, not take them on trust. No virtue attached to blindly accepting orthodoxy, however 'venerable'.
→ -
Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.
→ -
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. This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism. That which Agnostics deny and repudiate, as immoral, is the contrary doctrine, that there are propositions which men ought to believe without logically satisfactory evidence; and that reprobation ought to attach to the profession of disbelief in such inadequately supported propositions.
→ -
The foundation of all morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.
→ -
Trust a witness in all matters in which neither his self-interest, his passions, his prejudices, nor the love of the marvellous is strongly concerned. When they are involved, require corroborative evidence in exact proportion to the contravention of probability by the thing testified.
→ -
[Scientists] have learned to respect nothing but evidence, and to believe that their highest duty lies in submitting to it however it may jar against their inclinations.
→
Related Authors
-
-
Maximilien Robespierre Lawyer -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Science writer -
-
Robert Browning Poet -
Stephen Jay Gould Paleontologist -
Joseph Dalton Hooker Botanist -
Theodosius Dobzhansky Geneticist -
Alfred Russel Wallace Naturalist -
H. G. Wells Writer -
Charles Darwin Naturalist -
Theodore Dreiser Novelist -
Julian Huxley Film director -
Jean Gabin Film actor -
Ernst Haeckel Philosopher -
Jack London Author -
Charles Lyell Lawyer -
Aldous Huxley Writer -
Honore de Balzac Novelist -
Herbert Spencer Philosopher