Edward Forbes Quotes

12 Sourced Quotes

In truth, ideas and principles are independent of men; the application of them and their illustration is man's duty and merit. The time will come when the author of a view shall be set aside, and the view only taken cognizance of. This will be the millennium of Science.

Edward Forbes
Beneath the waves there are many dominions yet to be visited, and kingdoms to be discovered; and he who venturously brings up from the abyss enough of their inhabitants to display the physiognomy of the country, will taste that cup of delight, the sweetness of whose draught those only who have made a discovery know.

Edward Forbes
People without independence have no business to meddle with science. It should never be linked with lucre.

Edward Forbes
Everyone knows that the same animals and plants are not found everywhere... but that they are distributed so as to be gathered together in distinct zoological and botanical provinces, of greater or less extent, according to their degree of limitation by physical conditions, whether features of the earth's outline or climate.

Edward Forbes
As we descend deeper and deeper in this region its inhabitants become more and more modified, and fewer and fewer, indicating our approach towards an abyss where life is either extinguished, or exhibits but a few sparks to mark its lingering presence.

Edward Forbes
The naturalists of our own time hold equal faith in the wonders of the sea, but seek therein rather for the links of nature's chain than for apparent exceptions.

Edward Forbes
[Geology] may be looked upon as the history of the earth's changes during its preparation for the reception of organized beings, a history, which has all the character of a great epic.

Edward Forbes
As to giving credit to whom credit is due, rest assured the best way to do good to one's-self is to do justice to others. There is plenty for everybody in science, and more than can be consumed in our time. One may get a fair name by suppressing references, but the Jewish maxim is true, 'He who seeks a name loses fame.'

Edward Forbes
The naturalists of yore esteemed the ocean to be a treasury of wonders, and sought therein for monstrosities and organisms contrary to the law of nature, such as they interpreted it.

Edward Forbes
It is a very remarkable fact that the species of shell-fish common to Greenland and Finmark are not all inhabitants of deep or moderately deep water.... That these littoral mollusks indicate by their presence on both sides of the Atlantic, some ancient continuity or contiguity of coast-line is what I firmly believe.

Edward Forbes
Palaeontological research exhibits, beyond question, the phenomenon of provinces in time, as well as provinces in space. Moreover, all our knowledge of organic remains teaches us, that species have a definite existence, and a centralization in geological time as well as in geographical space, and that no species is repeated in time.

Edward Forbes
Every true species presents in its individuals, certain features, specific characters, which distinguish it from every other species; as if the Creator had set an exclusive mark or seal on each type.

Edward Forbes