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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index M > George W. Myers Quotes

George W. Myers
(30 Apr 1864 - 23 Nov 1931)

American astronomer, mathematician and educator who encouraged the University of Illinois to build a larger teaching observatory. In 1896, Myers was named the first director of the new observatory, as well as Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics. He moved and spent the rest of his career as Professor of Teaching of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of Chicago (1901-1929).

Science Quotes by George W. Myers (4 quotes)

I do not maintain that the chief value of the study of arithmetic consists in the lessons of morality that arise from this study. I claim only that, to be impressed from day to day, that there is something that is right as an answer to the questions with which one is able to grapple, and that there is a wrong answer—that there are ways in which the right answer can be established as right, that these ways automatically reject error and slovenliness, and that the learner is able himself to manipulate these ways and to arrive at the establishment of the true as opposed to the untrue, this relentless hewing to the line and stopping at the line, must color distinctly the thought life of the pupil with more than a tinge of morality. … To be neighborly with truth, to feel one’s self somewhat facile in ways of recognizing and establishing what is right, what is correct, to find the wrong persistently and unfailingly rejected as of no value, to feel that one can apply these ways for himself, that one can think and work independently, have a real, a positive, and a purifying effect upon moral character. They are the quiet, steady undertones of the work that always appeal to the learner for the sanction of his best judgment, and these are the really significant matters in school work. It is not the noise and bluster, not even the dramatics or the polemics from the teacher’s desk, that abide longest and leave the deepest and stablest imprint upon character. It is these still, small voices that speak unmistakably for the right and against the wrong and the erroneous that really form human character. When the school subjects are arranged on the basis of the degree to which they contribute to the moral upbuilding of human character good arithmetic will be well up the list.
— George W. Myers
In Arithmetic in Public Education (1909), 18. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 69.
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Leaders who assert they will not concede one square meter of national territory to an invader should think of the hundreds of square kilometers of topsoil eroded from their countries each year.
— George W. Myers
Quoted, without source, in Epigraph in P. G. Dhar Chakrabarti (ed.), People, Planet, and Progress Beyond 2015 (2017), 33. [Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source.]
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No school subject so readily furnishes tasks whose purpose can be made so clear, so immediate and so appealing to the sober second-thought of the immature learner as the right sort of elementary school mathematics.
— George W. Myers
In Arithmetic in Public Education (1909), 8. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 50.
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Thinking is merely the comparing of ideas, discerning relations of likeness and of difference between ideas, and drawing inferences. It is seizing general truths on the basis of clearly apprehended particulars. It is but generalizing and particularizing. Who will deny that a child can deal profitably with sequences of ideas like: How many marbles are 2 marbles and 3 marbles? 2 pencils and 3 pencils? 2 balls and 3 balls? 2 children and 3 children? 2 inches and 3 inches? 2 feet and 3 feet? 2 and 3? Who has not seen the countenance of some little learner light up at the end of such a series of questions with the exclamation, “Why it’s always that way. Isn’t it?” This is the glow of pleasure that the generalizing step always affords him who takes the step himself. This is the genuine life-giving joy which comes from feeling that one can successfully take this step. The reality of such a discovery is as great, and the lasting effect upon the mind of him that makes it is as sure as was that by which the great Newton hit upon the generalization of the law of gravitation. It is through these thrills of discovery that love to learn and intellectual pleasure are begotten and fostered. Good arithmetic teaching abounds in such opportunities.
— George W. Myers
In Arithmetic in Public Education (1909), 13. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Abound (17)  |  Afford (19)  |  Apprehend (5)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Ball (64)  |  Basis (180)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Compare (76)  |  Countenance (9)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deny (71)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discerning (16)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Exclamation (3)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Foster (12)  |  General (521)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Glow (15)  |  Good (906)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hit (20)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inference (45)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Joy (117)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learner (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life-Giving (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Marble (21)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Particular (80)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Question (649)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relation (166)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Series (153)  |  Step (234)  |  Successful (134)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thrill (26)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)


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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