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

No joy in nature is so sublimely affecting as the joy of a mother at the good fortune of a child.

[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.

The laboratory routine, which involves a great deal of measurement, filing, and tabulation, is either my lifeline or my chief handicap, I hardly know which.

Only fools, liars, and charlatans predict earthquakes

It is a common remark that men talk most who think least; just as frogs cease their quacking when a light is brought to the water-side.

The usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played in extending the scale to apply to earthquakes in all parts of the world.