In every area of the world where there is earthquake risk, there are still many buildings of this type; it is very frustrating to try to get rid of them.

The most remarkable feature about the magnitude scale was that it worked at all and that it could be extended on a worldwide basis. It was originally envisaged as a rather rough-and-ready procedure by which we could grade earthquakes. We would have been happy if we could have assigned just three categories, large, medium, and small; the point is, we wanted to avoid personal judgments. It actually turned out to be quite a finely tuned scale.

Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations.

[In plotting earthquake measurements] the range between the largest and smallest magnitudes seemed unmanageably large. Dr. Beno Gutenberg then made the natural suggestion to plot the amplitudes logarithmically.

If one introduces the concept of energy of an earthquake then that is a theoretically derived quantity.

it is good to have measured myself, to recognize my limitations.

There is nothing more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face, and among country people it is always a sign of a well-regulated life.