Micrographia Quotes
Science books
Top Quotes
“Robert Hooke”
“History of optics”
“Wikipedia: Micrographia”
“Micrographia *roject Gutenberg”
“...'tis not unlikely, but that we may find out wherein our Senses are deficient, and as easily find wayes of repairing them.”
“[T]hose which they call the eyes of Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimps, and the like... are Hemispher'd, almost in the same manner as these of Flies are.”
“[T]he dissolution of sulphureous bodies is made by a substance inherent, and mixt with the Air, that is like, if not the very same, with that which is fixt in Salt-peter.”
“Wikicommons: Hooke's Micrographia Diagrams from the National Library of Wales”
“[T]he footsteps of Nature are to be trac'd, not only in her ordinary course, but when she seems to be put to her shifts, to make many doublings and turnings, and to use some kind of art in indeavouring to avoid our discovery.”
“[W]e may perhaps be inabled to discern all the secret workings of Nature, almost in the same manner as we do those that are the productions of Art, and are manag'd by Wheels, and Engines, and Springs, that were devised by humane Wit.”
“Therefore... there is no such thing as an Element of Fire... but that that shining transient body which we call Flame, is nothing else but a mixture of Air, and volatil sulphureous parts of dissoluble or combustible bodies, which are acting upon each other...”
“[A]ll my ambition is, that I may serve to the great Philosophers of this Age, as the makers and the grinders of my Glasses did to me; that I may prepare and furnish them with some Materials, which they may afterwards order and manage with better skill, and to far greater advantage.”
“[T]he Air in which we live, move, and breath, and which encompasses very many, and cherishes most bodies it encompasses... is the menstruum, or universal dissolvent of all sulphureous bodies.”
“[T]here is such a modulation, or bending of the rayes of light, as I have call'd inflection, differing both from reflection, and refraction (since they are both made in the superficies, this only in the middle) and likewise, that this is able or sufficient to produce the effects I have ascribed to it.”
“[A]s in other solutions, if a copious and quick supply of fresh menstruum, though but weak, be poured on, or applied to the dissoluble body, it quickly consumes it: So this menstruum o{ the Air, if by Bellows... be copiously apply'd...[it] is found to dissolve it as soon, and as violently as the more strong menstruum of melted Nitre.”
“[T]he number of the Pearls or Hemispheres in the clusters of this Fly, was neer 14000. ...Other Animals I observ'd to have yet a greater number, as the Dragon-Fly or Adderbolt: And others to have a much less company, as an Ant, &c. and several other small Flies and Insects.”
“Although Fermat's result was correct, and, indeed, of high permanent interest, the principles from which it was derived were metaphysical rather than physical in character, and consequently were of little use for the purpose of framing a mechanical explanation of light. Descartes' theory therefore held the field until the publication in 1667§ of the Micrographia of Robert Hooke...”
“[T]e reason of its hardness and brittleness seems evident ,for since all the watery or liquid substance that moistn'd and toughn'd those Interstitia of the more solid parts, are evaporated and remov'd, that which is left behind becomes of the nature almost of a stone, which will not at all, or very little, bend without a divulsion or solution of its continuity.”
“It is said of great Empires, That the best way to preserve them from decay, is to bring them back to the first Principles, and Arts, on which they did begin. The same is undoubtedly true in Philosophy, that by wandring far away into invisible Notions, has almost quite destroy'd it self, and it can never be recovered, or continued, but by returning into the same sensible paths, in which it did at first proceed.”