John Tyndall quotes

John Tyndall was an English physicist and scientific communicator, renowned for his research on the physical properties of air and the scattering of light. His experiments explained why the sky appears blue and advanced the understanding of atmospheric phenomena. He contributed greatly to the popularization of science and science education in the 19th century. Here are 42 of his quotes:

Life is a wave, which in no two consecutive moments of its existence is composed of the same particles. (John Tyndall)
Knowledge once gained casts a faint light beyond its own immediate boundaries. View quote
John Tyndall
The brightest flashes in the world of thought are incomplete until they have been proved to have their counterparts in the world of fact. View quote
John Tyndall
Some years ago I found myself in discussion with a friend who entertained the notion that the general tendency of things in this world is towards equilibrium, the result of which would be peace and blessedness to the human race. My notion, was that equilibrium meant... death. No motive power is to be got from heat, save during its fall from a higher to a lower temperature, as no power is to be got from water save during its descent from a higher to a lower level. Thus also life consists, not in equilibrium, but in the passage towards equilibrium. In man it is the leap from the potential through the actual to repose. View quote
John Tyndall
With terrible jolts and oscillations the religious life of the world has run down 'the ringing grooves of change.' A smoother route may have been undiscoverable. At all events it was undiscovered. View quote
John Tyndall
Then arose the sect of the Gnostics-men who know - who laid claim to the possession of a perfect science, and who, if they were to be believed, had discovered the true formula for what philosophers called 'the Absolute.' But these speculative Gnostics were rejected by the conservative and orthodox Christians of their day as fiercely as their successors the Agnostics -men who don't know-are rejected by the orthodox in our own. View quote
John Tyndall
[T]he enunciation of a thought in advance of the moment provokes dissent or evokes approval, and thus promotes action. The thought may be unwise; but it is only by discussion, checked by experience, that its value can be determined. View quote
John Tyndall
[O]f the future form of religion little can be predicted. Its main concern may possibly be to purify, elevate, and brighten the life that now is, instead of treating it as the more or less dismal vestibule of a life that is to come. View quote
John Tyndall
When arguments or proofs were needed, whether on the side of the Jewish Christians or of the Gentile Christians, a document was discovered which met the case, and on which the name of an apostle, or of some authoritative contemporary of the apostles, was boldly inscribed. The end being held to sanctify the means, there was no lack of manufactured testimony. View quote
John Tyndall
Religious feeling is as much a verity as any other part of human consciousness; and against it, on the subjective side, the waves of science beat in vain. View quote
John Tyndall
Superstition may be defined as constructive religion which has grown incongruous with intelligence. (John Tyndall)
The Christian world seethed not only with apocryphal writings, but with hostile interpretations of writings not apocryphal. View quote
John Tyndall
It is as fatal as it is cowardly to blink facts because they are not to our taste. View quote
John Tyndall
[T]he most fatal error that could be committed by the leaders of religious thought is the attempt to force into their own age conceptions which have lived their life, and come to their natural end in preceding ages. View quote
John Tyndall
The yoke of religion has not always been easy, nor its burden light-a result arising, in part from the ignorance of the world at large, but more especially from the mistakes of those who had the charge and guidance of a great spiritual force, and who guided it blindly. View quote
John Tyndall
[W]aste in intellect may be as much an incident of growth as waste in nature. View quote
John Tyndall
To Principal Caird... imaging of the Unseen is of inestimable value. It furnishes an objective counterpart to religious emotion, permanent but plastic-capable of indefinite change and purification in response to the changing thoughts and aspirations of mankind. View quote
John Tyndall
The mind of man may be compared to a musical instrument with a certain range of notes, beyond which in both directions we have an infinitude of silence. View quote
John Tyndall
I leave it to you to compare this Christian hero [Paul] with some of the 'freethinkers' of our own day, who, 'more intolerant than the intolerance they deprecate,' flaunt in public their cheap and trumpery theories of the great Apostle and the Master whom he served. View quote
John Tyndall
Charles Darwin, the Abraham of scientific men - a searcher as obedient to the command of truth as was the patriarch to the command of God. View quote
John Tyndall
[T]he Christian philosopher of to-day has larger capacities and fuller knowledge than the Israelite of the time of Moses. What the one accepted as literal truth the other cannot accept save as a myth or figure. The children of Israel received without idealisation the statements of their great lawgiver. To them the tables of the law were true tablets of stone, prepared, engraved, broken, and re-engraved; while the graving tool which thus inscribed the law was held undoubtingly to be the finger of God. To us such conceptions are impossible. We may by habit use the words, but we attach to them no definite meaning. (John Tyndall)
History is the record of a vast experimental investigation-of a search by man after the best conditions of existence. View quote
John Tyndall
Almost every faith can point to its rejoicing martyrs. View quote
John Tyndall
Discussion, therefore, is one of the motive powers of life, and, as such, is not to be deprecated. View quote
John Tyndall
To legislation... the Puritans resorted. Instead of guiding, they repressed, and thus pitted themselves against the unconquerable impulses of human nature. Believing that nature to be depraved, they felt themselves logically warranted in putting it in irons. But they failed; and their failure ought to be a warning to their successors. View quote
John Tyndall