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Louis Agassiz

Louis Agassiz Books

Geologist

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“In 1847 I gave an address at Newton, Mass., before a Teachers' Institute conducted by Horace Mann. My subject was grasshoppers. I passed around a large jar of these insects, and made every teacher take one and hold it while I was speaking. If any one dropped the insect, I stopped till he picked it up. This was at that time a great innovation, and excited much laughter and derision. There can be no true progress in the teaching of natural science until such methods become general.”

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Author:Louis Agassiz
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“I have devoted my whole life to the study of Nature, and yet a single sentence may express all that I have done. I have shown that there is a correspondence between the succession of Fishes in geological times and the different stages of their growth in the egg,-this is all. It chanced to be a result that was found to apply to other groups and has led to other conclusions of a like nature.”

MayDifferentDoneWholeScienceFoundGrowthNatureResultsStudyGroupsStageEvolutionFishesSentencesWhole LifeConclusionEggsDevotedSuccessionGeologyCorrespondenceSingle SentenceGeological Time
Book:Agassiz on Evolution: Methods of study in natural history
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“The study of Nature is intercourse with the highest mind. You should never trifle with Nature. At her lowest her works are the works of the highest powers, the highest something in the universe, in whichever way we look at it... This is the charm of Study from Nature itself; she brings us back to absolute truth wherever we wander.”

WayShouldMindLooksScienceUniverseNaturePowerStudyHard WorkHighestAbsolutesWanderCharmLowestIntercourseTriflesAbsolute Truth
Author:Louis Agassiz
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“When chemists have brought their knowledge out of their special laboratories into the laboratory of the world, where chemical combinations are and have been through all time going on in such vast proportions,-when physicists study the laws of moisture, of clouds and storms, in past periods as well as in the present,-when, in short, geologists and zoologists are chemists and physicists, and vice versa,-then we shall learn more of the changes the world has undergone than is possible now that they are separately studied.”

WorldWellsHas BeensPastLawScienceStudySpecialPeriodsCloudsVicesStormAll TimeCombinationChanging The WorldProportionChemistryChemicalsPhysicistLaboratoryVice VersaChemistGeologistMoistureZoologist
Author:Louis Agassiz
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“I will frankly tell you that my experience in prolonged scientific investigations convinces me that a belief in God-a God who is behind and within the chaos of vanishing points of human knowledge-adds a wonderful stimulus to the man who attempts to penetrate into the regions of the unknown.”

MenHumansGodScienceBeliefBehindsKnowledgeWonderfulHe ManAddChaosConvinceRegionsInvestigationBiographiesPenetrateStimulusBelief In GodVanishingHuman KnowledgeVanishing Point
Author:Louis Agassiz
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“It is better to have a few forms well known than to teach a little about many hundred species. Better a dozen specimens thoroughly studied as the result of the first year's work, than to have two thousand dollars' worth of shells and corals bought from a curiosity-shop. The dozen animals would be your own.”

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Author:Louis Agassiz
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“It must be for truth's sake, and not for the sake of its usefulness to humanity, that the scientific man studies Nature. The application of science to the useful arts requires other abilities, other qualities, other tools than his; and therefore I say that the man of science who follows his studies into their practical application is false to his calling. The practical man stands ever ready to take up the work where the scientific man leaves it, and adapt it to the material wants and uses of daily life.”

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Author:Louis Agassiz
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“The office of science is not to record possibilities; but to ascertain what nature does ... As far as Darwinism deals with mere arguments of possibilities or even probabilities, without a basis of fact, it departs from the true scientific method and injures science, as most of the devotees of the new ism have already done.”

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Author:Louis Agassiz
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“As long as men inquire, they will find opportunities to know more upon these topics than those who have gone before them, so inexhaustibly rich is nature in the innermost diversity of her treasures of beauty, order and intelligence.”

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Book:Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America: pt. I. Essay on classification. pt. II. North American Testudinata. 1857
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“America, so far as her physical history is concerned, has been falsely denominated the New World. Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters, hers the first shore washed by the ocean that enveloped all the earth beside; and while Europe was represented only by islands rising here and there above the sea, America already stretched an unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the Far West.”

WorldFirstsHas BeensEarthAmericaScienceWaterLinesSeaLandOceanEuropeConcernedWestIslandsRisingDryShoreNew WorldHere And ThereUnbrokenNova ScotiaNovasDry Land
Book:Geological Sketches
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“Branches or types are characterized by the plan of their structure, Classes, by the manner in which that plan is executed, as far as ways and means are concerned, Orders, by the degrees of complication of that structure, Families, by their form, as far as determined by structure, Genera, by the details of the execution in special parts, and Species, by the relations of individuals to one another and to the world in which they live, as well as by the proportions of their parts, their ornamentation, etc.”

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Book:Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America: pt. I. Essay on classification. pt. II. North American Testudinata. 1857
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“Today our duty is to destroy the myth of evolution, considered as a simple, understood, and explained phenomenon which keeps rapidly unfolding before us. Biologists must be encouraged to think about the weaknesses and extrapolations that theoreticians put forward or lay down as established truths. The deceit is sometimes unconscious, but not always, since some people, owing to their sectarianism, purposely overlook reality and refuse to acknowledge the inadequacies and falsity of their beliefs.”

PeopleThinkingSometimesRealityTodayBeliefSimpleDutyEvolutionUnderstoodWeaknessLaysRefuseMythAcknowledgeUnconsciousDeceitPhenomenonUnfoldingInadequacyOwingBiologistSectarianismBe EncouragedFalsityCreation Myths
Author:Louis Agassiz
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“I may say that here, as in most cases where the operations of nature interfere with the designs of man, it is not by a direct intervention on our part that we may remedy the difficulties, but rather by a precise knowledge of their causes, which may enable us, if not to check, at least to avoid the evil consequences.”

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Book:Report on the Florida Reefs
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