William Beebe

Charles William "Will" Beebe (July 29 1877 – June 4 1962) was an American naturalist, explorer, and author.

Quotes



 * To be a Naturalist is better than to be a King.
 * Journal (31 December 1893)


 * The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.
 * The Bird (1906)


 * These descents of mine beneath the sea seemed to partake of a real cosmic character. First of all there was the complete and utter loneliness and isolation, a feeling wholly unlike the isolation felt when removed from fellow men by mere distance … . It was a loneliness more akin to a first venture upon the moon or Venus than that from a plane in mid-ocean or a stance on Mount Everest: no whit more wonderful than these feats, but different.
 * Half Mile Down (1951), p. 148


 * The isness of things is well worth studying; but it is their whyness that makes life worth living.
 * As quoted in On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz (1963)

"These words should be ready for instant use by every honest scientist➖ 'I don't know.'