Discovery Quotes

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star’d at the Pacific and all his men Look’d at each other with a wild surmise Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

He gave the world another world. (Columbus)

When we are young we long to tread a way none have trod before.

It saddens Norwegians that America still honors the Italian Columbus, who arrived late in the New World and by accident, who wasn’t even interested in New Worlds but only in spices. Out on a spin in search of curry powder and hot peppers – a man on a voyage to the grocery – he stumbled […]

I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds.

Some men are discovered; others are found out.

It is a profound mistake to think that everything has been discovered; as well think the horizon the boundary of the world.

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale. (1912, on his doomed Antarctic expedition)

The voyage of discovery is not in looking for new landscapes, but in looking with new eyes.

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.