Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct.
Julian HuxleyRead
To speculate without facts is to attempt to enter a house of which one has not the key, by wandering aimlessly round and round, searching the walls and now and then peeping through the windows. Facts are the key.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Speculating without factual information is ineffective and leads to confusion.
Julian Huxley's quote highlights the importance of facts in understanding and exploring complex ideas or situations. Without solid evidence or data, any attempt to form conclusions is merely guesswork, akin to trying to enter a locked house without a key. The allegory emphasizes that knowledge and understanding require a foundation built on verifiable information, as facts provide the clarity and direction needed for informed decision-making and exploration.
Themes
FactsSpeculationKnowledgeUnderstandingTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate, I might use this quote to emphasize the need for factual evidence.
More from Julian Huxley
All quotes →...any belief in supernatural creators, rulers, or influencers of natural or human process introduces an irreparable split into the universe, and prevents us from grasping its real unity. Any belief in Absolutes, whether the absolute validity of moral commandments, of authority of revelation, of inner certitudes, or of divine inspiration, erects a formidable barrier against progress and the responsibility of improvement, moral, rational, and religious.
Julian HuxleyRead
Today the god hypothesis has ceased to be scientifically tenable, has lost its explanatory value and is becoming an intellectual and moral burden to our thought. It no longer convinces or comforts, and its abandonment often brings a deep sense of relief.
Julian HuxleyRead
Will our Philosophy to later Life_x000D_ _x000D_ Seem but a crudeness of the planet's youth,_x000D_ _x000D_ Our Wisdom but a parasite of Truth?
Julian HuxleyRead
The scientific doctrine of progress is destined to replace not only the myth of progress, but all other myths of human earthly destiny. It will inevitably become one of the cornerstones of man's theology, or whatever may be the future substitute for theology, and the most important external support for human ethics.
Julian HuxleyRead
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