Elisha Gray Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

A word about the title—"Nature's Miracles." Some may claim that it is unscientific to speak of the operations of nature as "miracles." But the point of the title lies in the paradox of finding so many wonderful things—as wonderful as any miracle that was ever recorded—subservient to the rule of law. "But," you say, "a miracle does not come under any rule of law." Ah! are you sure of that? It is true that we may not understand the law that the so-called miracle comes under, but the Author of all natural law does.

Elisha Gray
The sponge, whether considered as a single or compound animal, has the power to reproduce itself, and here the mystery of life is as much hidden as it is in God's highest creation. It has been stated that every sponge contains a large number of separate cells which carry on the operation of circulation and respiration, and may be likened to the heart and lungs of an animal of a higher creation. Zoologists claim that each one of these cells represents a separate animal, living in a common structure.

Elisha Gray
Science has no prejudices — though scientists often do. Science is like figures: they do not lie themselves, but the men who figure are often the greatest liars in the world.

Elisha Gray
What shall we say of the Intelligence that plans all this? Can the Creator be less than the creature? Shall we not say that Intelligence is indestructible, and its measure is its Power to adapt means to ends? Intelligence, Matter, Energy — nature's trinity in her manifestations.

Elisha Gray
Those who believe that the laws of nature are the creations of a beneficent and all-wise Intelligence will see in this exception to the general law in the case of freezing water a striking evidence of design. But those who have no such belief will say it is a most fortunate though fortuitous circumstance (a saying they will have to make, regarding thousands of other things in nature), and go on floundering in the interminable sea of "I don't know."

Elisha Gray
It is the province of the scientist to reveal the facts of nature as they now exist, and leave the rest to the speculation of the philosopher and the theologian. The growth of vegetation made it possible for animal and insect life to exist, and the earth teemed with both; first of an inferior kind, but later, as the conditions for a higher order of life were right, the higher order came with the improved conditions. In this way was the earth through countless ages of time prepared for man — God's highest creation.

Elisha Gray
When the uncultured man sees a stone in the road it tells him no story other than the fact that he sees a stone... The scientist looking at the same stone perhaps will stop, and with a hammer break it open, when the newly exposed faces of the rock will have written upon them a history that is as real to him as the printed page.

Elisha Gray
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth..." Whatever our speculations may be in regard to a "beginning," and when it was, it is written in the rocks that, like the animals and plants upon its surface, the earth itself grew.

Elisha Gray
A man who is all theory is like "a rudderless ship on a shoreless sea."... Theories and speculations may be indulged in with safety only as long as they are based on facts that we can go back to at all times and know that we are on solid ground.

Elisha Gray
The world is now rapidly advancing in light, in knowledge, in power to use the infinite gifts that the Creator has hidden in nature; but hidden only to stimulate and reward our seeking. Every man can help in this grand progress,—if not by research and positive thought-power, at least by grateful acceptance and realization of what is gained. Look forward!

Elisha Gray
Sermons are not always preached from pulpits. They are written in the rocks and on the flowers of the field and the trees of the forest.

Elisha Gray