My fundamental axiom of speculative philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism are opposite poles of the same absurdity-the absurdity of imagining that we know anything about either spirit or matter.
Let us have “sweet girl graduates” by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the “golden hair” will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within.
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.
Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth.
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.