TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Dangerous... to take shelter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index E > Léo Errera Quotes

Thumbnail of Léo Errera (source)
Léo Errera
(4 Sep 1858 - 1 Aug 1905)

Belgian botanist who was middle aged when he died, and yet left a prolific output of papers which when collected were planned to fill six volumes. To mention a few of the topics he covered: plant nomenclature, plant physiology, relation of plants to the environment, and the scientific basis of agriculture.


Science Quotes by Léo Errera (10 quotes)

“Le génie n'est qu'une longue patience”, a dit Buffon. Cela est bien incomplet. Le génie, c'est l'impatience dans les idées et la patience dans les faits : une imagination vive et un jugement calme; quelque chose comme un liquide en ébullition dans un vase qui reste toujours froid.
“Genius is just enduring patience,” said Buffon. This is far from complete. Genius is impatience in ideas and patience with the facts: a lively imagination and a calm judgment, rather like a liquid boiling in a cup that remains cold.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 198. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Aphorism (22)  |  Boiling (3)  |  Buffon_Georges (2)  |  Calm (32)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cup (7)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Genius (301)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Like (23)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Lively (17)  |  Patience (58)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Vivid (25)

Altruisme des sylviculteurs pouvant servir de devise à l'humanité en général : «Nous récoltons ce que nous n’avons pas semé. Nous semons ce que nous ne récolterons pas.»
The altruism of foresters can serve as a motto for humanity in general: “We reap what we have not sown. We sow what we do not reap.”
— Léo Errera
Cited by Bismarck, 28 Jan 1886. As given in Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 194. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Altruism (7)  |  Do (1905)  |  Forester (4)  |  General (521)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Motto (29)  |  Reap (19)  |  Reaping (4)  |  Sowing (9)

Dieu, c'est le voile mystérieux sous lequel nous cachons notre ignorance de la cause première.
God is the mysterious veil under which we hide our ignorance of the cause.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 193. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  God (776)  |  Hide (70)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Veil (27)

La civilisation, c'est l'art de se créer des besoins inutiles.
Civilization is the art of creating useless needs.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 198. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Creation (350)  |  Need (320)  |  Uselessness (22)

La vérité est sur une courbe dont notre ésprit suit éternellement l'asymptote. (Oct 1879)
Truth is on a curve whose asymptote our spirit follows eternally.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 193. As translated in John Arthur Thomson, Introduction to Science (1911), 57,
Science quotes on:  |  Aphorism (22)  |  Asymptote (2)  |  Curve (49)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Follow (389)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Truth (1109)

La vérité ne diffère de l'erreur qu'en deux points: elle est un peu plus difficile à prouver et beaucoup plus difficile à faire admettre. (Dec 1880)
Truth is different from error in two respects: it is a little harder to prove and more difficult to admit.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 193. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Admission (17)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Error (339)  |  Hard (246)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Plus (43)  |  Point (584)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Respect (212)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)

Le paradoxe, c'est de la graine de vérité. Il suffit d'un terrain propice pour que cela germe, fleurisse et fructifie.
The paradox is the seed of truth. This germ just needs a fertile ground to flourish and bear fruit.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 198. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Bear (162)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Germ (54)  |  Ground (222)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Seed (97)  |  Terrain (6)  |  Truth (1109)

Les Leucocytes Et L'esprit De Sacrifice. — Il semble, d'après les recherches de De Bruyne (Phagocytose, 1895) et de ceux qui le citent, que les leucocytes des Lamellibranches — probablement lorsqu'ils ont phagocyté, qu'ils se sont chargés de résidus et de déchets, qu'ils ont, en un mot, accompli leur rôle et bien fait leur devoir — sortent du corps de l'animal et vont mourir dans le milieu ambiant. Ils se sacrifient. Après avoir si bien servi l'organisme par leur activité, ils le servent encore par leur mort en faisant place aux cellules nouvelles, plus jeunes.
N'est-ce pas la parfaite image du désintéressement le plus noble, et n'y a-t-il point là un exemple et un modèle? Il faut s'en inspirer: comme eux, nous sommes les unités d'un grand corps social; comme eux, nous pouvons le servir et envisager la mort avec sérénité, en subordonnant notre conscience individuelle à la conscience collective.
(30 Jan 1896)
Leukocytes and The Spirit Of Sacrifice. - It seems, according to research by De Bruyne (Phagocytosis, 1885) and those who quote it, that leukocytes of Lamellibranches [bivalves] - likely when they have phagocytized [ingested bacteria], as they become residues and waste, they have, in short, performed their role well and done their duty - leave the body of the animal and will die in the environment. They sacrifice themselves. Having so well served the body by their activities, they still serve in their death by making room for new younger cells.
Isn't this the perfect image of the noblest selflessness, and thereby presents an example and a model? It should be inspiring: like them, we are the units of a great social body, like them, we can serve and contemplate death with equanimity, subordinating our individual consciousness to collective consciousness.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 194. Google translation by Webmaster. Please give feedback if you can improve it.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Become (821)  |  Bivalve (2)  |  Body (557)  |  Cell (146)  |  Collective (24)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Death (406)  |  Duty (71)  |  Environment (239)  |  Equanimity (5)  |  Example (98)  |  Great (1610)  |  Image (97)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Leukocyte (2)  |  Making (300)  |  Model (106)  |  New (1273)  |  Noble (93)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Plus (43)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Quote (46)  |  Research (753)  |  Residue (9)  |  Role (86)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Service (110)  |  Short (200)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Still (614)  |  Subordination (5)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Waste (109)  |  Will (2350)  |  Younger (21)

Pour réussir dans la science, il faut douter; pour réussir dans la vie, il faut être sûr.
To succeed in science, one must doubt; to succeed in life, one must be sure.
— Léo Errera
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 193. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Doubt (314)  |  Life (1870)  |  Must (1525)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Sure (15)

Que faisons-nous ici-bas? Nous préparons les floraisons de demain. Nous sommes tous du fumier d'humanité future.
What are we doing on earth? We are preparing the blossoms of tomorrow. We are all the manure of future humanity.
— Léo Errera
Aphorism dated 28 Nov 1903, in Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 194. Google translation by Webmaster. You may choose to use “blooms” instead of “blossoms” depending on your context.
Science quotes on:  |  Blossom (22)  |  Doing (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Flower (112)  |  Future (467)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manure (8)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Tomorrow (63)


See also:
  • 4 Sep - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Errera's birth.

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
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.