Scipione Breislak Quote

In geology we cannot dispense with conjectures: [but] because we are condemned to dream let us ensure that our dreams are like those of sane men—e.g. that they have their foundations in truth—and are not like the dreams of the sick, formed by strange combinations of phantasms, contrary to nature and therefore incredible.

Introduzione alla Geologia, Part 1 (1811), trans. Ezio Vaccari