From GISLounge
"The good cartographer is both a scientist and an artist. He must have a thorough knowledge of his subject and model, the Earth.... He must have the ability to generalize intelligently and to make a right selection of the features to show. These are represented by means of lines or colors; and the effective use of lines or colors requires more than knowledge of the subject - it requires artistic judgement."
-- Erwin Josephus Raisz (1893 - 1968)"Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."
-- Tobler's First Law of Geography"A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams."
-- Gilbert H. Grosvenor, Editor of National Geographic (1903- 1954)"Knowing where things are, and why, is essential to rational decision making"
-- Jack Dangermond, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)"A number of astronauts, and then all of us who saw the photography from space, marveled at how much the Florida peninsula, meandering Mississippi, the islands of Britain, and the boot of Italy resembled the maps everyone had grown up with. We had taken it for granted that maps were faithful reflections of reality; but we were somehow amazed when reality turned out to be true to the maps."
-- John Noble Wilford, The MapmakersFrom GIS Thoughts
"The application of GIS is only limited by the imagination of those who use it."
-- Jack Dangermond"Let us look at the map, for maps, like faces, are the signature of history. "
-- Will Durant"I have an existential map. It has "you are here" written all over it."
-- Steven Wright"There's a silent revolution going on. It's a revolution that impacts each of our lives, although few of us have heard anything about it. It affects the rates we pay for utility services and the quality of our roadways. It can influence the speed with which emergency vehicles respond to our calls and how quickly criminals are put behind bars. It can help prevent famine, blight, and pestilence. It has played an instrumental role in planning and fighting wars and then rebuilding war- torn communities. It is being used for applications as far flung as finding delinquent tax-payers, developing pizza delivery routes, and setting insurance rates. It's even being used to increase the impact of "junk" mail you receive. The basis for this silent revolution is a technology called GIS--an acronym for Geographic Information Systems."
-- Business Week, July, 1991"The character and technology of mapmaking may have changed over the centuries,...but the potential of maps has not. Maps embody a perspective of that which is known and a perception of that which may be worth knowing."
-- John Noble Wilford from The Mapmakers"A decision is as good as the information that goes into it."
-- John F. Boorout, Jr."The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few but information in the hands of many. "
-- John Naisbitt, Megatrends"Knowledge of a place--where you are and where you come from--is intertwined with knowledge of who you are. Landscape, in other words, shapes mindscape."
-- David Orr"GIS are simultaneously the telescope, the microscope, the computer, and the xerox machine of regional analysis and synthesis of spatial data."
-- Abler, 1988From Lewis Carroll
THE Bellman himself they all praised to the skies-
Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!
Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,
The moment one looked in his face!
He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.
"What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
"They are merely conventional signs!
"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we've got our brave Captain to thank"
(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best-
A perfect and absolute blank!" http://www.pacificnet.net/%7Ejohnr/books/image1.cgi?snrk4.jpg
-- Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark
Mein Herr looked so thoroughly bewildered that I thought it best to change the subject. “What a useful thing a pocket-map is!” I remarked.
“That’s another thing we’ve learned from your Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?”“About six inches to the mile.”
“Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!”
”Have you used it much?” I enquired.
“It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.
-- Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded"Without geography you're nowhere."
-- Jimmy Buffett
Page updated 3/18/08
