Georges Cuvier Quotes

Hence the same instant which killed the animals froze the country where they lived. This event was sudden, instantaneous, without any gradual development. ~ Georges Cuvier

It is in this mutual dependence of the functions and the aid which they reciprocally lend one another that are founded the laws which determine the relations of their organs and which possess a necessity equal to that of metaphysical or mathematical laws, since it is evident that the seemly harmony between organs which interact is a necessary condition of existence of the creature to which they belong and that if one of these functions were modified in a manner incompatible with the modifications of the others the creature could no longer continue to exist. ~ Georges Cuvier

[Audubon's works are] the most splendid monuments which art has erected in honor of ornithology. ~ Georges Cuvier

The works which this man [Joseph Banks] leaves behind him occupy a few pages only; their importance is not greatly superior to their extent; and yet his name will shine out with lustre in the history of the sciences. ~ Georges Cuvier

The traces of upheavals become more impressive when one moves a little higher, when one gets even closer to the foot of the great mountain ranges. There are still plenty of shell layers. We notice them, even thicker and more solid ones. ~ Georges Cuvier

The works which this man leaves behind him occupy a few pages only; their importance is not greatly superior to their extent; and yet his name will shine out with lustre in the history of the sciences.

{Cuvier on Joseph Banks} ~ Georges Cuvier

To spread healthy ideas among even the lowest classes of people, to remove men from the influence of prejudice and passion, to make reason the arbiter and supreme guide of public opinion; that is the essential goal of the sciences; that is how science will contribute to the advancement of civilization, and that is what deserves protection of governments who want to insure the stability of their power. ~ Georges Cuvier

The older the layers, the more each of them is uniform over a great extent; the newer the layers, the more they are limited and subject to variation within small distances. ~ Georges Cuvier

Since nothing can exist that does not fulfil the conditions which render its existence possible, the different parts each being must be co-ordinated in such a way as to render possible the existence of the being as a whole, not only in itself, but also in its relations with other beings, and the analysis of these conditions often leads to general laws which are as certain as those which are derived from calculation or from experiment. ~ Georges Cuvier

Secondly, the nature of the revolutions which have altered the surface of the earth must have had a more decisive effect on the terrestrial quadrupeds than on the marine animals. ~ Georges Cuvier

It is to them [fossils] alone that we owe the commencement of even a Theory of the Earth ... By them we are enabled to ascertain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth has not always been covered over by the same external crust, because we are thoroughly assured that the organized bodies to which these fossil remains belong must have lived upon the surface before they came to be buried, as they now are, at a great depth. ~ Georges Cuvier

It has been long considered possible to explain the more ancient revolutions on ... the Earth surface by means of these still existing causes; in the same manner as it is found easy to explain past events in political history, by an acquaintance with the passions and intrigues of the present day. But we shall presently see that unfortunately this is not the case in physical history:-the thread of operation is here broken, the march of nature is changed, and none of the agents that she now employs were sufficient for the production of her ancient works. ~ Georges Cuvier

Cuvier had even in his address & manner the character of a superior Man, much general power & eloquence in conversation & great variety of information on scientific as well as popular subjects. I should say of him that he is the most distinguished man of talents I have ever known on the continent ... ~ Humphry Davy

Evolution is the law of policies: Darwin said it, Socrates endorsed it, Cuvier proved it and established it for all time in his paper on 'The Survival of the Fittest.' These are illustrious names, this is a mighty doctrine: nothing can ever remove it from its firm base, nothing dissolve it, but evolution. ~ Mark Twain

Thus it cannot be denied that the masses which today form our highest mountains were originally in a liquid state; for a long time they were covered by waters which did not sustain any life. ~ Georges Cuvier

All organs of an animal form a single system, the parts of which hang together, and act and re-act upon one another; and no modifications can appear in one part without bringing about corresponding modifications in all the rest. ~ Georges Cuvier

If they [enlightened men] take any interest in examining, in the infancy of our species, the almost obliterated traces of so many nations that have become extinct, they will doubtless take a similar interest in collecting, amidst the darkness which covers the infancy of the globe, the traces of those revolutions which took place anterior to the existence of all nations. ~ Georges Cuvier

The imperialist found it useful to incorporate the credible and seemingly unimpeachable wisdom of science to create a racial classification to be used in the appropriation and organization of lesser cultures. The works of Carolus Linnaeus, Georges Buffon, and Georges Cuvier, organized races in terms of a civilized us and a paradigmatic other. The other was uncivilized, barbaric, and wholly lower than the advanced races of Europe. This paradigm of imaginatively constructing a world predicated upon race was grounded in science, and expressed as philosophical axioms by John Locke and David Hume, offered compelling justification that Europe always ought to rule non-Europeans. This doctrine of cultural superiority had a direct bearing on Zionist practice and vision in Palestine.
A civilized man, it was believed, could cultivate the land because it meant something to him; on it, accordingly, he produced useful arts and crafts, he created, he accomplished, he built. For uncivilized people, land was either farmed badly or it was left to rot. This was

imperialism as theory and colonialism was the practice of changing the uselessly unoccupied territories of the world into useful new versions of Europe. It was this epistemic framework that shaped and informed Zionist attitudes towards the Arab Palestinian natives. This is the intellectual background that Zionism emerged from. Zionism saw Palestine through the same prism as the European did, as an empty territory parado ~ R.F. Georgy

Nurse, it was I who discovered that leeches have red blood.[]On his deathbed when the nurse came to apply leeches ~ Georges Cuvier

Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle. ~ Charles Darwin

Moreover, it thus follows that not a great deal of time was needed for the large animals of the three major parts of the world to become known to the people who spent time on the coasts of those regions. ~ Georges Cuvier

The appearance of the bones of quadrupeds, especially those of complete bodies in the strata, tells us either that the layer itself which carries them was in earlier times dry land or that dry land was at least formed in the immediate area. ~ Georges Cuvier

Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few observations, explained by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and the series of events which preceded the birth of the human race? ~ Georges Cuvier

To seek in the great accumulation of the already-said the text that resembles 'in advance' a later text, to ransack history in order to rediscover the play of anticipations or echoes, to go right back to the first seeds or to go forward to the last traces, to reveal in a work its fidelity to tradition or its irreducible uniqueness, to raise or lower its stock of originality, to say that the Port -Royal grammarians invented nothing, or to discover that Cuvier had more predecessors than one thought, these are harmless enough amusements for historians who refuse to grow up. ~ Michel Foucault

I have never heard a fisherman say that he loves the sea. ~ Georges Perros

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy. ~ Georges Simenon

Harton thought that if one squeezed humanity through a wine press, its essence would flow out as drops of policemen. ~ Georges Limbour

A messenger? Who is it? Is Lord Shigeru expecting a message? Do we know what it's about?" George's questions came tumbling out before Horace had a chance to begin answering. He shook his head and smiled at his old childhood companion. "I don't know. I don't know. And ... I don't know," he said. He saw George's shoulders relax as he realized his questions had been unreasonable. "I imagine we'll find out when he comes up to us." "Of ~ John Flanagan

Then why in God's name did you grab for George's pistol when you knew help was coming?" Apollo asked. "They weren't here yet and he was going to shoot you," she said, placing her palms on his chest. "I couldn't let him." His throat closed and he couldn't reply. All he could do was pull her into his arms and hold her close. ~ Elizabeth Hoyt

I love creating new things. It's difficult to be creative once a restaurant's open. People want the same dishes. For me, the creativity is in opening a new place and starting a new menu. ~ Jean-Georges Vongerichten

My mentality is that when I go to sleep at night, I'm a better martial artist than when I woke up in the morning. ~ Georges St-Pierre

Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius. ~ Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte De Buffon

I grew up in Alsace - in Strasbourg, by the canal; the family business was coal handling. It was still in the days when three generations would live under the same roof. There were 15 people for lunch, 20 for dinner. ~ Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Do you think the Goblin King really did it?" asked Cordelia hesitantly. All the sheep knew she was talking about George's death. Mopple quickly pulled up a tuft of grass.
"Or Satan?" added Lane.
"Nonsense," Rameses snorted nervously. "Satan would never do a thing like that."
several of the sheep bleated in agreement. None of them thought Satan capable of such an act. Satan was an elderly donkey who sometimes grazed in the meadow next to theirs, and uttered blood-curdling cries. his voice was truly dreadful, but otherwise he'd always struck them as harmless. ~ Leonie Swann

Girls when it says "I love you" - it's like a second baptism - It gives them a whole new heart - As at the end of the egg. ~ Georges Brassens

Innovation, born from true creativity, depends on movement. ~ Georges St-Pierre

The purpose is to become the best writer in my category (yes, page for page and pound for pound). ~ Georges St-Pierre

Oh, the joy of the arrival of a child, which is both the one and the other, a mirror in which husband and wife, who love each other, can see each other in one single face. ~ Georges Rodenbach

[Zarathustra] never abandoned the watchword of not having any end, not serving a cause, because, as he knew, causes pluck off the wings we fly with. ~ Georges Bataille

Wasting one's youth is better than doing nothing at all with it. ~ Georges Courteline

It was night and I could see a large and calm lake, reflecting the moon. Black mountains rose around it. I arrived from between two of these mountains, I looked at the lake and the moon, and that was it, nothing else happened. ~ Georges Simenon

You don't get better on the days when you feel like going. You get better on the days when you don't want to go, but you go anyway. If you can overcome the negative energy coming from your tired body or unmotivated mind, you will grow and become better. It won't be the best workout you have, you won't accomplish as much as what you usually do when you actually feel good, but that doesn't matter. Growth is a long term game, and the crappy days are more important. ~ Georges St-Pierre

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. ~ Georges Clemenceau

Observing her, I saw that she was made up, that she was in an evening gown, that mourning indecently emphasized her beauty. ~ Georges Bataille

The whole Renaissance tradition is antipethic to me. The hard-and-fast rules of perspective which it succeeded in imposing on art were a ghastly mistake which it has taken four centuries to redress; Cezanne and after him Picasso and myself can take a lot of credit for this ... Scientific perspective forces the objects in a picture to disappear away form the beholder instead of bringing them within his reach as painting should. ~ Georges Braque

You conquered the landscape with the soles of shoes, not the tires. ~ Georges Duhamel

War is too important to be left to the generals ~ Georges Clemenceau

The place smelled of fairgrounds, of lazy crowds, of nights when you stayed out because you couldn't go to bed, and it smelled like New York, of its calm and brutal indifference. ~ Georges Simenon

The man who has entered into a beautiful union is sure of at least one person to whom he can give the best that he possesses. ~ Georges Duhamel

Life is very interesting if you make mistakes. ~ Georges Carpentier

I remember my first year, I hit him with three good punches and couldn't believe he was still standing. He hit me with one and cracked my helmet. My head hurt for a week. ~ Georges Laraque

Starry sky
my sister
cursed men
star your death
the light of a great cold
solitude of lightning
absence of humanity at last
I empty myself of memories
a desert sun
effaces my name
star I see
its silence ice
it cries out like a wolf
on my back I fall to the ground
it kills me I guess. ~ Georges Bataille

Does inadequacy not characterize all that we make use of to perceive and describe the world? Are the signs of language not just as inadequate, albeit differently, as are images? ~ Georges Didi-Huberman

A chef and a restaurateur are different jobs: One is about pleasing people with what's on the plate; the other is about understanding the market. I'm a chef, but I think I'm a savvy businessperson, too. ~ Jean-Georges Vongerichten

A man who finds himself among others is irritated because he does not know why he is not one of the others.
In bed next to a girl he loves, he forgets that he does not know why he is himself instead of the body he touches.
Without knowing it, he suffers from the mental darkness that keeps him from screaming that he himself is the girl who forgets his presence while shuddering in his arms. ~ Georges Bataille

Faith is not a thing which one 'loses', we merely cease to shape our lives by it. ~ Georges Bernanos

In order to conquer, what we need is to dare, still to dare, and always to dare. ~ Georges Jacques Danton

At man's core there is a voice that wants him never to give in to fear. But if it is true that in general man cannot give in to fear, at the very least he postpones indefinitely the moment when he will have to confront himself with the object of his fear ... when he will no longer have the assistance of reason as guaranteed by God, or when he will no longer have the assistance of God such as reason guaranteed. It is necessary to recoil, but it is necessary to leap, and perhaps one only recoils in order to leap better. ~ Georges Bataille

The road to the kingdom of childhood, governed by ingenuousness and innocence, is thus regained in the horror of atonement. The purity of love is regained in its intimate truth which, as I said, is that of death. Death and the instant of divine intoxication merge when they both oppose those intentions of Good which are based on rational calculation. And death indicates the instant which, in so far as it is instantaneous, renounces the calculated quest for survival. The instant of the new individual being depended on the death of other beings. Had they not died there would have been no room for new ones. Reproduction and death condition the immortal renewal of life; they condition the instant which is always new. That is why we can only have a tragic view of the enchantment of life, but that is also why tragedy is the symbol of enchantment. ~ Georges Bataille

There remains the unforseen. And the unforseen is never negligible. ~ Georges Bernanos

Fabre looked up, his mobile face composed. "Good-bye," he said. "Georges-Jacques
study law. Law is a weapon. ~ Hilary Mantel

Paradise is full of idiots who believe it exists ~ Georges Wolinski

We pedaled rapidly, without laughing or speaking, peculiarly satisfied with our mutual presence, akin to one another in the common isolation of lewdness, weariness, and absurdity. ~ Georges Bataille

Wrath shut the door. "Let's do it," he said to George. And the dog knew right where to go, leading him to the entrance - which Wrath opened with his mind. "Hi, honey, I'm home!" he hollered. "Did you bring flowers?" Lassiter shouted back. "Not for you." "Damn it. Well, I'm on deck tonight with Tohr, so can we get moving? There's a full list of appointments, but I want to get back for Hell's Kitchen." "Don't you DVR that shit?" Wrath groused as he and George went into the old dining room. "Yeah, but I have poor impulse control. It was on at nine, okay? And I hate waiting. I put George's fresh water down by your chair, b.t.dub." "At least you're a dog lover. That's the only thing that saves you." "Ha! I have wings and a halo, you cranky son of a bitch. I'm already perma-saved." "Just our luck. ~ J.R. Ward

If you prepare your subconscious for highly stressful situations, you can create harmony with your fears. You can tame fear like a wild animal and use it to your advantage. ~ Georges St-Pierre

For those who have the habit of prayer, thought is too often a mere alibi, a sly way of deciding to do what one wants to do. Reason will always obscure what we wish to keep in the shadows. A worldling can think out the pros and cons and sum up his chances. No doubt. But what are our chances worth? We who have admitted once and for all into each moment of our puny lives the terrifying presence of God? ... What is the use of working out chances? There are no chances against God. ~ Georges Bernanos

One of the lessons I learned in all those years practicing karate is that progress only comes in small incremental portions. ~ Georges St-Pierre

The style is the man himself ~ Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte De Buffon

[I]n the face of every image we have to choose whether, or how, to make it participate in our knowledge and action. We can accept or reject this or that image; take it as a consoling object or as a worrying object; make it ask questions or use it as a ready-made response. ~ Georges Didi-Huberman