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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index P > Charles Willson Peale Quotes

Thumbnail of Charles Willson Peale (source)
Charles Willson Peale
(15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827)

American artist and naturalist who opened the first U.S. popular Museum of Natural Science and Art. While a portrait painter, Peale also maintained a diverse interest in science, and held several patents for inventions.


Science Quotes by Charles Willson Peale (5 quotes)

Self portrait of Charles Wilson Peale, upper body, head turned slightly right, eyes forward, spectacles on forehead
Charles Willson Peale (1804)
self-portrait with spectacles on forehead (source)
A taste for natural enquiries is not only useful in the highest degree, but a neverfailing source of the most exalted enjoyment; a more rational pleasure cannot possibly occupy the attention or captivate the affections of mankind, than that which arises from a due consideration of the works of nature.
— Charles Willson Peale
From Introduction to a Course of Lectures on Natural History: Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 16, 1799 (1800), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Pleasure (191)

Natural history is not only interesting to the individual, it ought to become a NATIONAL CONCERN, since it is a NATIONAL GOOD,—of this, agriculture, as it is the most important occupation, affords the most striking proof.
— Charles Willson Peale
From Introduction to a Course of Lectures on Natural History: Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 16, 1799 (1800), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Concern (239)  |  Good (906)  |  Important (229)  |  Interest (416)  |  National (29)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Proof (304)

Nature is silent only to those who know not how to interrogate her—to the man of inquisitive mind she offers ample instruction.
— Charles Willson Peale
From Introduction to a Course of Lectures on Natural History: Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 16, 1799 (1800), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Inquisitiveness (6)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interrogation (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Silence (62)

The world is a museum in which all men are destined to be employed and amused, and they cannot be too much interested in the objects around them. Goldsmith the elegant imitator of Buffon, says “The mere uninformed spectator passes on in gloomy solitude; while the naturalist in every plant, in every insect, and in every pebble, finds something to entertain his curiosity and excite his speculation.”
— Charles Willson Peale
From Introduction to a Course of Lectures on Natural History: Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 16, 1799 (1800), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Comte Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (37)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Entertainment (19)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Gloom (11)  |  Oliver Goldsmith (14)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Museum (40)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Object (438)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Plant (320)  |  Solitude (20)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Uninformed (3)  |  World (1850)

What more pleasing prospect can be opened to our view than the boundless field of nature? not only comprehending the inhabitants of earth, sea, and air; but earth, sea and air themselves—presenting an inexhaustible fund for amusing and useful enquiry.
— Charles Willson Peale
From Introduction to a Course of Lectures on Natural History: Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 16, 1799 (1800), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Sea (326)  |  Useful (260)


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