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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index L > Carolus Linnaeus Quotes > Species

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Carolus Linnaeus
(23 May 1707 - 10 Jan 1778)

Swedish botanist and explorer who established the first precise biological classification, with a uniform system for naming organisms by genera and species of organisms.


Carolus Linnaeus Quotes on Species (6 quotes)

>> Click for 23 Science Quotes by Carolus Linnaeus

>> Click for Carolus Linnaeus Quotes on | Animal | Classification | Genus |

All the species recognized by Botanists came forth from the Almighty Creator’s hand, and the number of these is now and always will be exactly the same, while every day new and different florists’ species arise from the true species so-called by Botanists, and when they have arisen they finally revert to the original forms. Accordingly to the former have been assigned by Nature fixed limits, beyond which they cannot go: while the latter display without end the infinite sport of Nature.
— Carolus Linnaeus
In Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 310. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Almighty (23)  |  Arise (162)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Call (781)  |  Creator (97)  |  Different (595)  |  Display (59)  |  End (603)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Species (435)  |  Sport (23)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)

Nomenclature, the other foundation of botany, should provide the names as soon as the classification is made... If the names are unknown knowledge of the things also perishes... For a single genus, a single name.
— Carolus Linnaeus
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 210. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Classification (102)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Genus (27)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perish (56)  |  Single (365)  |  Soon (187)  |  Species (435)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unknown (195)

Of what use are the great number of petrifactions, of different species, shape and form which are dug up by naturalists? Perhaps the collection of such specimens is sheer vanity and inquisitiveness. I do not presume to say; but we find in our mountains the rarest animals, shells, mussels, and corals embalmed in stone, as it were, living specimens of which are now being sought in vain throughout Europe. These stones alone whisper in the midst of general silence.
— Carolus Linnaeus
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 132. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 56.
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The species and the genus are always the work of nature [i.e. specially created]; the variety mostly that of circumstance; the class and the order are the work of nature and art.
— Carolus Linnaeus
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 162. Trans. Frans A. Statfleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Class (168)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Genus (27)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Species (435)  |  Variety (138)  |  Work (1402)

There are as many species as the infinite being created diverse forms in the beginning, which, following the laws of generation, produced many others, but always similar to them: therefore there are as many species as we have different structures before us today.
— Carolus Linnaeus
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 157. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linneans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Law (913)  |  Other (2233)  |  Produced (187)  |  Species (435)  |  Structure (365)  |  Today (321)

We admit as many genera as there are different groups of natural species of which the fructification has the same structure.
— Carolus Linnaeus
Fundamenta Botanica (1736), 159. Trans. Gunnar Eriksson, 'Linnaeus the Botanist', in Tore Frängsmyr (ed.), Linnaeus: The Man and his Work (1983), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Different (595)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Genus (27)  |  Natural (810)  |  Species (435)  |  Structure (365)


See also:
  • 23 May - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Linnaeus's birth.
  • Carl Linnaeus - from Famous Men of Science (1926)

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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