Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Louis Agassiz (Swiss-American Scientist)

Louis Agassiz (1807–73,) in full Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, was a Swiss-born American naturalist, geologist, paleontologist, and teacher. He made revolutionary contributions to the natural science study of glacier activity and extinct fishes. He achieved recognition through his innovative teaching methods, which altered the character of natural science education in the United States.

Born in Motier-en-Vully, Switzerland, Agassiz studied at the Zürich medical school and Heidelberg and Munich universities. His primary interest was zoology. While still a student, he published The Fishes of Brazil (1829,) which brought him to the attention of naturalist Georges Cuvier.

In 1832, Agassiz was elected a natural history professor at the University of Neuchatel, where he became interested in glaciers. He examined the evidence for the glacial transportation of rock material and proved that glaciers are mobile. Tracing their previous extents in the Alps, he developed the theory of ice ages, global cooling, and the past effects on flora and fauna. He can be considered the father of glacial theory for credibility to the previously unacceptable ideas of the geologists Horace Bénédict de Saussure and James Hutton.

Agassiz completed a successful Lowell lecture tour in Boston in 1846 and became a natural history professor at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. In 1859, Agassiz founded the Museum for Comparative Zoology at Harvard, to which he donated his collections. He became an oceanographer in 1851, taking an interest in coral reefs. His publications include Études sur les glaciers (1840, “Studies on Glaciers”) and Systeme Glaciere (1847.)

Agassiz resisted Darwin’s theory of evolution and espoused creationism. In 1850, he set out to “prove” black people are “inferior” and “justify their subjugation, exploitation, and segregation.” Agassiz’s notion that blacks were a separate species, a “degraded and degenerate race,” was used to support slavery in America. The racism implied in his works on human polygenism has tarnished his reputation.

Agassiz’s second wife, Elizabeth Cary, later founded Radcliffe College, where women could study under Harvard professors. His son, Alexander Agassiz, directed his museum after his death.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Louis Agassiz

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.
Louis Agassiz
Topics: Science

I cannot afford to waste my time making money.
Louis Agassiz
Topics: Time, Money, Time Management

Every great scientific truth goes through three stages.—First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.—Next they say it had been discovered before. Lastly, they say they always believed it.
Louis Agassiz
Topics: Science

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