The theory of [Alfred] Wegener is to me a beautiful dream, the dream of a great poet. One tries to embrace it and finds that he has in his arms but a little vapor or smoke; it is at the same time alluring and intangible.

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1924 - The Drifting of the Continents (p. 236), Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. 1925