Nicolas Steno

Nicolas Steno (11 January 1638 – 5 December 1686) was a Danish scientist, a pioneer in both anatomy and geology who became a Catholic bishop in his later years.

Quotes

Beautiful is what we see, More Beautiful is what we know, most Beautiful by far is what we don't.
- quoted by Addison Anderson in a TED-Ed lesson.

In the case of those solids, whether of earth, or rock, which enclose on all sides and contain crystals, selenites, marcasites, plants and their parts, bones and the shells of animals, and other bodies of this kind which are possessed of a smooth surface, these same bodies had already become hard at the time when the matter of the earth and rock containing them was still fluid. And not only did the earth and rock not produce the bodies contained in them, but they did not even exist as such when those bodies were produced in them.
- The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid : (Page 217)

There are those among us who would have us say that the mysteries of the brain are completely solved and little needs to be added to its knowledge. It is as if these fortunate persons had been present when this magnificent organ was created.
- quoted in Minds Behind the Brain. A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries by S. Finger, 2000

We need only view a Dissection of that large Mass, the Brain, to have ground to bewail our Ignorance...We admire...the Fibres of every Muscle, and ought still more to admire their disposition in the Brain, where an infinite number of them contained in a very small Space, do each execute their particular Offices without confusion or disorder.
- quoted in Minds Behind the Brain. A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries by S. Finger (Introduction; A Voyage Across time) (2000)

External links

Encyclopedic article on Nicolas Steno on Wikipedia