Carl Linnaeus Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

There is no generation from an egg in the Mineral Kingdom. Hence no vascular circulation of the humours as in the remaining Natural Kingdoms.

Carl Linnaeus
Every genus is natural, created as such in the beginning, hence not to be rashly split up or stuck together by whim or according to anyone's theory.

Carl Linnaeus
For wealth disappears, the most magnificent houses fall into decay, the most numerous family at some time or another comes to an end: the greatest and the most prosperous kingdoms can be overthrown: but the whole of Nature must be blotted out before the race of plants passes away, and he is forgotten who in Botany held up the torch.

Carl Linnaeus
Nature does not make any leaps. All plants show an affinity with those around them, according to their geographical location.

Carl Linnaeus
No one has any right to be angry with me, if I think fit to enumerate man among the quadrapeds. Man is neither a stone nor a plant, but an animal, for such is his way of living and moving; nor is he a worm, for then he would have only one foot; nor an insect, for then he would have antennae; nor a fish, for he has no fins; nor a bird, for he has no wings. Therefore, he is a quadraped, had a mouth like that of other quadrapeds, and finally four feet, on two of which he goes, and uses the other two for prehensive purposes.

Carl Linnaeus
Great is our God, and great is His power, and his strength is immeasurable

Carl Linnaeus
The first step of science is to know one thing from another. This knowledge consists in their specific distinctions; but in order that it may be fixed and permanent distinct names must be given to different things, and those names must be recorded and remembered.

Carl Linnaeus
Theologically, man is to be understood as the final purpose of the creation; placed on the globe as the masterpiece of the works of Omnipotence, contemplating the world by virtue of sapient reason, forming conclusions by means of his senses, it is in His works that man recognizes the almighty Creator, the all-knowing, immeasurable and eternal God, learning to live morally under His rule, convinced of the complete justice of His Nemesis.

Carl Linnaeus
If a tree dies, plant another in its place.

Carl Linnaeus
The first step in wisdom is to know the things themselves; this notion consists in having a true idea of the objects; objects are distinguished and known by classifying them methodically and giving them appropriate names. Therefore, classification and name-giving will be the foundation of our science.

Carl Linnaeus
Stones grow, plants grow, and live, animals grow live and feel.

Carl Linnaeus
By a botanist I mean one who understands how to observe the genera of Nature. I judge unworthy of the name of botanist the meddlesome person who is indifferent to genera.

Carl Linnaeus
In natural science the principles of truth ought to be confirmed by observation.

Carl Linnaeus
The names of the plants ought to be stable [certa], consequently they should be given to stable genera.

Carl Linnaeus
Your works are wonderful, O Lord! In the multitude of Thy virtues you measure those who despise you.

Carl Linnaeus
I saw the infinite, all-knowing and all-powerful God from behind as he went away, and I grew dizzy. I followed his footsteps over nature's fields and saw everywhere an eternal wisdom and power, an inscrutable perfection.

Carl Linnaeus
The organs of generation, which in the animal kingdom are by nature generally removed from sight, in the vegetable kingdom are exposed to the eyes of all, and that when their nuptials are celebrated, it is wonderful what delight they afford to the spectator by their most beautiful colors and delicious odors.

Carl Linnaeus
To you, my dearly-beloved botanists, I submit my rules, the rules which I have laid down for myself, and in accordance with which I intend to walk. If they seem to you worthy, let them be used by you also; if not, please propound something better!

Carl Linnaeus
I demand of you, and of the whole world, that you show me a generic character—one that is according to generally accepted principles of classification, by which to distinguish between Man and Ape. I myself most assuredly know of none.... But, if I had called man an ape, or vice versa, I should have fallen under the ban of all the ecclesiastics. It may be that as a naturalist I ought to have done so.

Carl Linnaeus
A herbarium is better than any illustration; every botanist should make one.

Carl Linnaeus
I am quite aware that this road is obscured by mists that may pass over it from time to time. Yet these mists will be easily dispersed as soon as it is possible to employ widely the light of experiments. For Nature remains always the same; when she seems to be different it is because of the inevitable defects of our observations.

Carl Linnaeus
The Earth's Creation is the glory of God, as seen from the works of Nature by Man alone.

Carl Linnaeus
My mind reels when, on this height, I look down on the long ages that have flowed by like waves in the sound and have left traces of the ancient world, traces so nearly obscured that they can only whisper now that everything else has been silenced.

Carl Linnaeus
A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars.

Carl Linnaeus
We admit as many genera as there are different groups of natural species of which the fructification has the same structure.

Carl Linnaeus