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About this quote

What does it mean?
For a natural philosopher, every object in nature holds significance.
In plain terms
Nothing in nature is too small to matter to a scientist.
What can you take from it?
Treat every observation as important.

Where it applies

  • scientific research
  • learning
  • exploration

Putting it to work

  • value all observations
  • study details

Questions to consider

  • What small things interest you?
  • How do you prioritize observations?

Another view

Some objects may truly be trivial depending on context.

More from John Herschel

  1. Man is constituted as a speculative being; he contemplates the world, and the objects around him, not with a passive indifferent eye, but as a system disposed …

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  2. Accustomed to trace the operation of general causes, and the exemplification of general laws, in circumstances where the uninformed and unenquiring eye perceiv…

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  3. Time! Time! Time! - we must not impugn the Scripture Chronology, but we must interpret it in accordance with whatever shall appear on fair enquiry to be the tr…

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