Carl Linnaeus

The knowledge of plants is essential for human well-being.

I have seen the hand of God in every leaf and flower.

The pursuit of knowledge is the noblest endeavor.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Yes, but Linnaeus would still classify it.

I have seen the face of God, and it is a flower.

The first step in wisdom is to know the things themselves; this the physician calls diagnosis, the logician definition, the mathematician demonstration, and I, classification.

A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a student to strive for eminence, by giving him an opportunity to follow his own bent, and by providing a stimulus to well-directed effort.

The world is not a chaos, but a cosmos.

I have been called a second Adam, or if you will, the first Adam of the new creation.

The most beautiful flowers are those that are most difficult to obtain.

A botanist is a man who knows a plant by its name, and a plant by its properties.

I am not ashamed to confess that I have learned more from plants than from books.

The classification of plants is the foundation of all botany.

The world is a museum, and I am its curator.

He who does not know the names of things, knows nothing.

I have named all the plants, and now I shall name all the animals.

The most important thing in science is to classify.

A plant without a name is a plant without a soul.

The botanist is a man who knows the secrets of nature.

The world is a garden, and I am its gardener.