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: “We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome. Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by human kind.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index M > Matthew Fontaine Maury Quotes

Thumbnail of Matthew Fontaine Maury (source)
Matthew Fontaine Maury
(14 Jan 1806 - 1 Feb 1873)

American naval officer, oceanographer and hydrographer.


Science Quotes by Matthew Fontaine Maury (6 quotes)

Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off so as to expose to view this great seagash which separates continents, and extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present a scene the most rugged, grand and imposing. The very ribs of the solid earth, with the foundations of the sea, would be brought to light.
— Matthew Fontaine Maury
(1860)
Science quotes on:  |  Antarctic (7)  |  Arctic (10)  |  Atlantic (8)  |  Bring (95)  |  Continent (79)  |  Draw (140)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Expose (28)  |  Extend (129)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Grand (29)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impose (22)  |  Light (635)  |  Most (1728)  |  Present (630)  |  Rib (6)  |  Rugged (7)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sea (326)  |  Separate (151)  |  Solid (119)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)

Every physical fact, every expression of nature, every feature of the earth, the work of any and all of those agents which make the face of the world what it is, and as we see it, is interesting and instructive. Until we get hold of a group of physical facts, we do not know what practical bearings they may have, though right-minded men know that they contain many precious jewels, which science, or the expert hand of philosophy will not fail top bring out, polished, and bright, and beautifully adapted to man's purposes.
— Matthew Fontaine Maury
In The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), 209-210. Maury was in particular referring to the potential use of deep-sea soundings.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Agent (73)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Bright (81)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Expert (67)  |  Expression (181)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Feature (49)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Jewel (10)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Polish (17)  |  Practical (225)  |  Precious (43)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1094)  |  Top (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

It is a custom often practiced by seafaring people to throw a bottle overboard, with a paper, stating the time and place at which it is done. In the absence of other information as to currents, that afforded by these mute little navigators is of great value.
— Matthew Fontaine Maury
In The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Bottle (17)  |  Current (122)  |  Custom (44)  |  Great (1610)  |  Information (173)  |  Little (717)  |  Mute (5)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overboard (3)  |  Paper (192)  |  People (1031)  |  Place (192)  |  Time (1911)  |  Value (393)

The rules of scientific investigation always require us, when we enter the domains of conjecture, to adopt that hypothesis by which the greatest number of known facts and phenomena may be reconciled.
— Matthew Fontaine Maury
In The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Domain (72)  |  Enter (145)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Known (453)  |  Number (710)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Reconciliation (10)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientific (955)

There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Sea. It is the Gulf Stream.
— Matthew Fontaine Maury
Opening paragraph of The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Arctic (10)  |  Arctic Sea (2)  |  Bank (31)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Cold (115)  |  Current (122)  |  Drought (14)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Flood (52)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Gulf Of Mexico (5)  |  Gulf Stream (2)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Overflow (10)  |  River (140)  |  Sea (326)  |  Stream (83)  |  Warm (74)  |  Water (503)

There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon.
— Matthew Fontaine Maury
In The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology (1855), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Amazon (11)  |  Arctic (10)  |  Arctic Sea (2)  |  Bank (31)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Cold (115)  |  Current (122)  |  Drought (14)  |  Fail (191)  |  Flood (52)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fountain (18)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Gulf Of Mexico (5)  |  Gulf Stream (2)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mighty (13)  |  Mississippi (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Oceanography (17)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overflow (10)  |  Rapid (37)  |  River (140)  |  Sea (326)  |  Severe (17)  |  Stream (83)  |  Warm (74)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)


See also:
  • 14 Jan - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Maury's birth.
  • Matthew Fontaine Maury: Scientist of the Sea, by Frances Leigh Williams. - book suggestion.

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.