18th-century Botanist Quotes

Adelbert von Chamisso

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

Charles Bonnet

William Carey

John Bartram

When I spoke, I was listened to; and I was at a loss to know how I had so easily acquired the art of commanding attention, and giving the tone to the conversation.

Adelbert von Chamisso

Nature appears not to have intended that any flower should be fertilized by its own pollen.

Christian Konrad Sprengel

A Christian minister is a person who in a peculiar sense is not his own; he is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to Him.

Death, my son, is a good for all; it is the night of this worrisome day that one calls life.

In French: La mort, mon fils, est un bien pour tous les hommes; elle est la nuit de ce jour inquiet qu'on appelle la vie.

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

These motions were such as to satisfy me, after frequently repeated observation, that they arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself.

Summary of Brownian motion

Robert Brown (botanist)

The science of fossil shells is the first step towards the study of the earth.

Giovanni Battista Brocchi

Between the lowest and the highest degree of spiritual and corporal perfection, there is an almost infinite number of intermediate degrees. The succession of degrees comprises the Universal Chain. It unites all beings, ties together all worlds, embraces all the spheres. One SINGLE BEING is outside this chain, and this is HE who made it.

The vegetable world presents an almost infinite variety of objects, calculated not only to supply our numerous wants, but to gratify the senses, to delight the most refined taste, and to elevate the mind to the God of Nature.

Henry Phillips (horticulturist)

Each shell, each crawling insect holds a rank Important in the plan of Him, who fram'd This scale of beings; holds a rank, which lost Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap Which nature's self would rue.

Benjamin Stillingfleet

These [Brownian] motions were such as to satisfy me, after frequently repeated observation, that they arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself.

Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)

I hope by these practical observations [of cross fertilization] to open a gate into a very large field of experimental knowledge, which, if judiciously improved, may be a considerable addition to the beauty of the florist's garden.