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George R. Russell
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American merchant.
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Science Quotes by George R. Russell (1 quote)
Steam, that great civilizer.
— George R. Russell
Lecture, Providence, Rhode Island (4 Sep 1849), The Merchant: An Oration Before the Rhode Island Alpha of Phi Beta Kappa (1849), 39. Reprinted in three parts in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review (May-Jul 1851), 24. The quote appears on page 689. A sketch of Russell’s life is on page 531. The quote is in a compilation by Charles Noel Douglas, Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical (1917), 1535 (also online at Bartleby.com) where it is incorrectly attributed to Freeman Hunt. Russell is introduced as the author in the May 1851 issue of Hunt’s magazine, of which Freeman Hunt was the publisher.
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) -- 
