|
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
(28 Sep 1698 - 27 Jul 1759)
French mathematician, biologist, biologist, astronomer and astronomer.
|
Science Quotes by Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1)
However dangerous might be the shock of a comet, it might be so slight, that it would only do damage at the part of the Earth where it actually struck; perhaps even we might cry quits if while one kingdom were devastated, the rest of the Earth were to enjoy the rarities which a body which came from so far might bring it. Perhaps we should be very surprised to find that the debris of these masses that we despised were formed of gold and diamonds; but who would be the most astonished, we, or the comet-dwellers, who would be cast on our Earth? What strange being wach would find the other!
— Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
'Lettre sur la comète'. Œuvres de M. Maupertuis (1752), 203. In Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain (1986), 95-96.
