As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs.

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.

Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field.

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

Only fools, liars, and charlatans predict earthquakes

The rose does not bloom without thorns. True, but would that the thorns did not outlive the rose.

Spring makes everything young again except man.

Refining is inevitable in science when you have made measurements of a phenomenon for a long period of time.

I was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil.

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

I would walk - not run - to the nearest seismograph.

I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.

Knives and candlelight, ” he said, “how romantic.

Uninvited guests seldom meet a welcome.

Kinsey would identify himself with Galileo in moments of feelings of persecution.

If you have assumed a character above your strength, you have both acted in this matter in an unbecoming way, and you have neglected that which you might have fulfilled.

The best pictures are yet to be made.

I am proud to tell Hollywood that I am a Christian. For the first time I am now free to be myself.

A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.

Life isn't easy, no matter where you are. You'll make choices you think are right, and then suffer for them.

Marriage is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three.