WIST Quotations

Huxley, T. H. -- Essay (1889-06), “Agnosticism and Christianity,” The Nineteenth Century magazine, Vol. 25, No. 148

Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:05:08 +0000

Moreover, speaking for myself, and without impugning the right of any other person to use the term in another sense, I further say that 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. This principle may be stated in various ways, but they all amount to this: that it is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to agnosticism.

T. H. Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Essay (1889-06), “Agnosticism and Christianity,” The Nineteenth Century magazine, Vol. 25, No. 148

Collected in Henry Wace (ed.), Christianity and Agnosticism, ch. 9 (1889), a collection of Huxley essays and replies to them (several by Wace).) The passage is sometimes miscited as coming from his earlier essay "Agnosticism," from the 1889-02 issue (Vol. 25, No. 144) (Collected).

Huxley, T. H. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:58:50 +0000

Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to know or believe.

T. H. Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
(Attributed)

Huxley claimed in later years to have developed this formulation, along with the word "Agnostic," at the 1869 meeting of the Metaphysical Society. The truth regarding the word itself, at least, appears a bit more complex and unresolved than that. I have not been able find when this precise definition of Agnosticism was first published.

Huxley expanded on the definition in a series of essays in 1889. See here and here.

Hepburn, Katharine -- “Kate Talks Straight,” interview by Myrna Blyth, Ladies’ Home Journal (1991-10)

Dave — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 23:18:46 +0000

I’m an atheist, and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American actress
“Kate Talks Straight,” interview by Myrna Blyth, Ladies’ Home Journal (1991-10)

Dawkins, Richard -- Speech, Edinburgh International Science Festival (1992-04-15)

Dave — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 02:15:12 +0000

It is often said […] that although there is no positive evidence for the existence of God, nor is there evidence against his existence. So it is best to keep an open mind and be agnostic. At first sight that seems an unassailable position, at least in the weak sense of Pascal’s wager. But on second thoughts it seems a cop-out, because the same could be said of Father Christmas and tooth fairies. There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can’t prove that there aren’t any, so shouldn’t we be agnostic with respect to fairies?

Richard Dawkins (b. 1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, author
Speech, Edinburgh International Science Festival (1992-04-15)

Quoted in "EDITORIAL: A scientist's case against God," The Independent (1992-04-20).

Zelazny, Roger -- “Agnostic’s Prayer,” Creatures of Light and Darkness (1969)

Dave — Wed, 11 May 2022 14:23:06 +0000

Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American writer
“Agnostic’s Prayer,” Creatures of Light and Darkness (1969)

Used by a character to shrive a person about to commit a public suicide. Also called the "Possibly Proper Death Litany."

Teller, Edward -- Memoirs, ch. 5 (2002)

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:15:58 +0000

The idea of God that I absorbed was that it would be wonderful if He existed: We needed Him desperately but had not seen Him in many thousands of years.

Edward Teller (1908–2003) Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
Memoirs, ch. 5 (2002)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Letter to the Chicago Times (27 Mar 1890)

Dave — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 23:33:38 +0000

I have little confidence in any enterprise or business or investment that promises dividends only after the death of the stockholders.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Letter to the Chicago Times (27 Mar 1890)

Asimov, Isaac -- Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)

Dave — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 19:49:43 +0000

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
Free Inquiry (Spring 1982)

Lewis, Sinclair -- Elmer Gantry (1927)

Dave — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:43:20 +0000

“Even if some details of dogma aren’t true — or even all of ’em — think what a consolation religion and the church are to weak humanity!”
“Are they? I wonder! Don’t cheerful agnostics, who know they are going to die dead, worry much less than good Baptists, who worry lest their sons and cousins and sweethearts fail to get into the Baptist heaven — or what is even worse, who wonder if they may not have guessed wrong — if God may not be a Catholic, maybe, or a Mormon or Seventh-day Adventist instead of a Baptist, and then they’ll go to hell themselves. Consolation? No!”

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American novelist, playwright
Elmer Gantry (1927)

Milne, A. A. -- Year In, Year Out, “March” (1952)

Dave — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 13:12:35 +0000

The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief — call it what you will — than any book ever written; it has emptied more churches than all the counterattractions of cinema, motor bicycle and golf course.

A. A. Milne (1882–1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Year In, Year Out, “March” (1952)

The book, Milne's last, is a series of non-fiction essays, autobiographical sketches, and (usually) humorous musings on various subjects, originally published in Punch magazine.

Huxley, T. H. -- Essay (1889-02), “Agnosticism,” The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 25, No. 144

Dave — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:15:51 +0000

Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle. That principle is of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer who said, “Try all things, hold fast by that which is good”; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him, it is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be the agnostic faith, which if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever the future may have in store for him.

T. H. Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
Essay (1889-02), “Agnosticism,” The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 25, No. 144

Collected in Henry Wace (ed.), Christianity and Agnosticism, ch. 2 (1889).

Huxley, T. H. -- Essay (1889-02), “Agnosticism,” The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 25, No. 144

Dave — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:40:25 +0000

When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain “gnosis,” — had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble.

Huxley, T. H. -- Essay (1889-06), “Agnosticism and Christianity,” The Nineteenth Century magazine, Vol. 25, No. 148

Dave — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:14:50 +0000

We have not the slightest objection to believe anything you like, if you will give us good grounds for belief; but, if you cannot, we must respectfully refuse, even if that refusal should wreck morality and insure our own damnation several times over. We are quite content to leave that to the decision of the future. The course of the past has impressed us with the firm conviction that no good ever comes of falsehood, and we feel warranted in refusing even to experiment in that direction.

Lec, Stanislaw -- Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]

Dave — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:04:45 +0000

What do I believe? I believe in God, if he exists.

Stanislaw Lec (1909–1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]

Huxley, T. H. -- Essay (1889-06), “Agnosticism and Christianity,” The Nineteenth Century magazine, Vol. 25, No. 148

Dave — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:11:50 +0000

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. This principle may be stated in various ways, but they all amount to this: that it is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism.

Feynman, Richard -- Interview (1959-05-01) by Bill Stout, Viewpoint, KNXT radio

Dave — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:39:27 +0000

It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil — which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American physicist
Interview (1959-05-01) by Bill Stout, Viewpoint, KNXT radio

Reprinted in Michelle Feynman (ed.), Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P Feynman, Appendix I (2006).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Burns,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

His religion at best is an anxious wish, — like that of Rabelais, a great Perhaps.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Burns,” Edinburgh Review No. 96, Art. 1 (1828-12)

A review of Lockhart, The Life of Robert Burns (1828).