The row was over Darwinism, but before it ended Darwinism was almost forgotten. What Huxley fought for was something far greater: the right of civilized men to think freely and speak freely, without asking leave of authority, clerical or lay. How new that right is! And yet how firmly held! Today it would be hard to imagine living without it. No man of self-respect, when he has a thought to utter, pauses to wonder what the bishops will have to say about it. The views of bishops are simply ignored. Yet only sixty years ago they were still so powerful that they gave Huxley the battle of his life.

All of us owe a vast debt to Huxley, especially all of us of English speech, for it was he, more than any other man, who worked that great change in human thou…

His voice was low, clear and distinct...Professor Huxley's method is slow, precise, and clear, and he guards the positions that he takes with astuteness and ab…

'Huxley, I believe, was the greatest Englishman of the nineteenth century.'

The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience.

To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious.

I can never consent to being dictated to.