Thomas Henry Huxley
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"Thomas Henry Huxley" was an English people/English biologist (comparative anatomist), known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Huxley's 1860 Oxford evolution debate/famous debate in 1860 with Samuel Wilberforce was a key moment in the wider acceptance of evolution and in his own career. Huxley had been planning to leave Oxford on the previous day, but, after an encounter with Robert Chambers (journalist)/Robert Chambers, the author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation/Vestiges, he changed his mind and decided to join the debate. Wilberforce was coached by Richard Owen, against whom Huxley also debated about whether humans were closely related to apes.

Huxley was slow to accept some of Darwin's ideas, such as gradualism, and was undecided about natural selection, but despite this he was wholehearted in his public support of Darwin. Instrumental in developing scientific education in Britain, he fought against the more extreme versions of religious tradition.

In 1869 Huxley coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his uncertainty of whether or not a god exists. Use of that term has continued to the present day (see Thomas Henry Huxley and agnosticism).

More Thomas Henry Huxley on Wikipedia.

Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

Learn what is true in order to do what is right.

Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.

Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth.

There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.