Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists.
In fact a favourite problem of Tyndall is-Given the molecular forces in a mutton chop, deduce Hamlet or Faust therefrom. He is confident that the Physics of the Future will solve this easily.
If there is anything in the world which I do firmly believe in, it is the universal validity of the law of causation.
All knowledge is good. It is impossible to say any fragment of knowledge, however insignificant or remote from one’s ordinary pursuits, may not some day be turned to account.
The thief and the murderer follow nature just as much as the philanthropist.
I care not what subject is taught, if only it be taught well.
If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
If the perpetual oscillation of nations between anarchy and despotism is to be replaced by the steady march of self-restraining freedom, it will be because men will gradually bring themselves to deal with political, as they now deal with scientific questions.
Veracity is the heart of morality.
That man, I think, has had a liberal education, who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will.
Agnosticism is not properly described as a “negative” creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual.
Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, but people and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws.
Fact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty shadow of my own mind’s throwing?
To persons uninstructed in natural history, their country or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.
There is no absurdity in theology so great that you cannot parallel it by a greater absurdity in Nature.
Man’s Place in Nature.
Deduction, which takes us from the general proposition to facts again-teaches us, if I may so say, to anticipate from the ticket what is inside the bundle.
Living things have no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium.
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.
I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance – that there are a great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are.
If then the question is put to me whether I would rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.