“To him… who had examined the laws of light merely in a drop of water, the brilliant phenomenon of the rainbow would be totally unintelligible.”
Introductory
A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842)
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Adolphe Quetelet52
Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociolo… 1796–1874Related quotes
“The soul would have no rainbow
Had the eyes no tears.”
John Vance Cheney (1848–1922) American writer
The Century Vol. 44, Issue 4 (August 1892)
Tears (1892)
Context: Not in the time of pleasure
Hope doth set her bow;
But in the sky of sorrow,
Over the vale of woe. Through gloom and shadow look we
On beyond the years!
The soul would have no rainbow
Had the eyes no tears.
Peter Medawar (1915–1987) scientist
1960s, Review of Teilhard de Chardin's "The Phenomenon of Man", 1961
Paul Karl Feyerabend (1924–1994) Austrian-born philosopher of science
pg 27.
Conquest of Abundance (2001 [posthumous])
“Rainbow drops - suck them and you can spit in six different colours.”
Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
“Technically, one drop of water would cover the planet, if you spread it really thin.”
Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Hovind theory
Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist
You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)
“Judge — A law student who marks his own examination-papers.”
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)