Quote #46

'The fact is that he [Richard Owen] made a prodigious blunder... and now his only chance is to be silent & let people forget the exposure!' THH to J.D. Hooker 27 April 1861 about Owen's view on human and ape brains; and of course Owen was not silent.[1]

More from Thomas Henry Huxley

  1. 'Life is too short to occupy oneself with the slaying of the slain more than once'. One of a series of exchanges when Owen repeated his cla…
  2. For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.
  3. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling…
  4. The life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our know…
  5. Science has taught... me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such bel…
  6. Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, but men…
  7. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonder…
  8. The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.

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