Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by John Herschel (English Mathematician)

John Herschel (1792-1871,) fully Sir John Frederick William Herschel, was an English astronomer and physicist. He continued the sky survey to the southern hemisphere, carried out pioneering work in photography, and made contributions to meteorology and geophysics.

Born in Slough, Herschel was the only child of Sir William Herschel, the astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus. John was educated briefly at Eton, then at home and at St John’s College-Cambridge, where he was Senior Wrangler and Smith’s Prizeman (1813) and was made a Fellow of his college. His first award was the Copley Prize of the Royal Society for his mathematical research in 1821.

Herschel re-examined his father’s double stars (1821-23.) He produced a catalog that earned him the Lalande Prize (1825) and the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1826.) He reviewed his father’s incredible catalog of nebulae in Slough (1825-33,) adding 525 new ones, for which he received the gold medals of the Royal Astronomical Society (1826) and the Royal Society (1836.)

To extend the survey to the entire sky, he went to South Africa. In four years (1834-38,) he completed a study of nebulae and clusters in the southern skies, observing 1,708 of them, the majority previously unseen. He also discovered over 1,200 pairs of double stars, cataloged over 1,000 objects in the Magellanic Clouds, and extended his father’s star gauging exercise to southern fields. His southern observations, published as Cape Observations (1847,) earned him the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (1847.)

Herschel was also interested in chemistry. He was a pioneer photographer, the inventor of the fixing process using hyposulphite of soda (1819) and independently of sensitized paper (1839,) and the originator of the terms positive and negative in photography.

Herschel never occupied an academic post, supporting his research from his private means, his one official appointment being Master of the Mint (1850-55.) He was made a baronet at Queen Victoria’s coronation.

Irish astronomer and writer Agnes Mary Clerke wrote The Herschels and Modern Astronomy (1895,) and Popular History of Astronomy, 4th ed. (1902.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Herschel

The besetting evil of our age is the temptation to squander and dilute thought on a thousand different lines of inquiry.
—John Herschel

Music and dancing (the more the pity) have become so closely associated with ideas of riot and debauchery among the less cultivated classes, that a taste for them, for their own sakes, can hardly be said to exist, and before they can be recommended as innocent or safe amusements, a very great change of ideas must take place.
—John Herschel
Topics: Music

The novel, in its best form, I regard as one of the most powerful engines of civilization ever invented.
—John Herschel

The grand character of truth is its capability of enduring the test of universal experience, and coming unchanged out of every possible form of fair discussion.
—John Herschel
Topics: Truth

Self-respect…that corner-stone of all virtue.
—John Herschel
Topics: Self-respect

If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it and you can hardly fail of making him happy. You make him a denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages.
—John Herschel
Topics: Reading

Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
—John Herschel
Topics: Self Respect, Respectability, Self-respect, Respect

There is a gentle, but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man’s character and conduct, which is not the least effectual because it works insensibly and because it is really the last thing he dreams of.
—John Herschel
Topics: Reading

To the natural philosopher, there is no natural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of Nature’s works he may learn the greatest lessons.
—John Herschel
Topics: Nature

Many brilliant speculations are but shining soap bubbles, which turn to nothing as you gaze at them.
—John Herschel

All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths that come from on high and are contained in the sacred writings.
—John Herschel
Topics: Bible

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *