Edward Forbes Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. I have in hands, now, specimens of bottom from t he Gulf Stream, obtained by Lieutenant Craven, and I can say that they are among the most interesting that I have ever seen.

Edward Forbes

#4. Zero of Animal Life probably about 300 fathoms.

Edward Forbes

#5. 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

#6. Palaeontological research exhibits, beyond question, the phenomenon of provinces in time, as well as provinces in space.

Edward Forbes

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

Edward Forbes

#8. 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

#9. The corals do not look much worn, but still appear to have been dead. There are some delicate shells of molluscs from depths beyond 500 fathoms, where they were certainly living.

Edward Forbes

#10. 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

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

Edward Forbes