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George Wald
(18 Nov 1906 - 12 Apr 1997)
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George Wald Quotes on Earth (5 quotes)
>> Click for 30 Science Quotes by George Wald
>> Click for George Wald Quotes on | Death | Knowledge | Life | Planet | Solar System | Universe |
>> Click for 30 Science Quotes by George Wald
>> Click for George Wald Quotes on | Death | Knowledge | Life | Planet | Solar System | Universe |
About two million years ago, man appeared. He has become the dominant species on the earth. All other living things, animal and plant, live by his sufferance. He is the custodian of life on earth, and in the solar system. It’s a big responsibility.
— George Wald
Every creature alive on the earth today represents an unbroken line of life that stretches back to the first primitive organism to appear on this planet; and that is about three billion years.
— George Wald
Four elements, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, also provide an example of the astonishing togetherness of our universe. They make up the “organic” molecules that constitute living organisms on a planet, and the nuclei of these same elements interact to generate the light of its star. Then the organisms on the planet come to depend wholly on that starlight, as they must if life is to persist. So it is that all life on the Earth runs on sunlight. [Referring to photosynthesis]
— George Wald
I tell my students, with a feeling of pride that I hope they will share, that the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen that make up ninety-nine per cent of our living substance were cooked in the deep interiors of earlier generations of dying stars. Gathered up from the ends of the universe, over billions of years, eventually they came to form, in part, the substance of our sun, its planets, and ourselves. Three billion years ago, life arose upon the earth. It is the only life in the solar system.
— George Wald
The thought that we’re in competition with Russians or with Chinese is all a mistake, and trivial. We are one species, with a world to win. There’s life all over this universe, but the only life in the solar system is on earth, and in the whole universe we are the only men.
— George Wald
See also:
- 18 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Wald's birth.