Alexander von Humboldt? Voltaire? Samuel Eliot Morison? Timothy Ferris? Bill Bryson? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Time is required for a society to fully comprehend and accept a major discovery. Resistance to a breakthrough occurs in a series of phases. Here are two versions of a cogent saying:
Three degrees of doubt: First, deny the discovery itself; Second, deny the importance; third, deny the novelty.
Three stages of discovery: first, people doubt its existence; second, they deny its importance; third, they credit someone else.
This saying has been attributed to German geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in an 1836 book by Alexander von Humboldt titled “Examen Critique de L’Histoire de La Géographie du Nouveau Continent” (“Critical Examination of the History of Geography of the New Continent”). This passage in French is followed by an English translation. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
A toutes les époques d’une civilisation avancée, il en a été des découvertes géographiques comme des inventions dans les arts, et de ces grandes conceptions dans les lettres et les sciences, par lesquelles l’esprit humain tente de se frayer une route nouvelle; on nie d’abord la découverte même ou la justesse de la conception; plus tard on nie leur importance, enfin, leur nouveauté. Ce sont trois degrés d’un doute qui adoucit, du moins pour quelque temps, les chagrins causés par l’envie . . .
In all periods of an advanced civilization, there have been geographical discoveries as well as inventions in the arts, and these great conceptions in letters and sciences, by which the human mind attempts to forge a new path; we first deny the discovery itself or the accuracy of the conception; later we deny the importance, finally we deny the novelty. These are three degrees of doubt which soften, at least for a while, the sorrows caused by envy . . .
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Interestingly, Alexander von Humboldt acknowledged that his tripartite statement was built upon an earlier remark composed by Voltaire:
. . . une habitude qui date de plus loin que la fondation de cette Académie d’Italie, qui doutait de tout, excepté de ses propres arrêts. « Lorsque Colomb avait promis un nouvel hémisphère, dit l’illustre auteur de l’Essai sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations on lui avait soutenu que cet hémisphère ne pouvait exister, et quand il l’eut découvert, on prétendit qu’il avait été connu depuis long-temps. »
. . . a habit that dates back further than the founding of the Italian Academy, which doubted everything except its own rulings. “When Columbus promised a new hemisphere,” says the illustrious author of the “Essay On the Morals and Spirit of Nations”, “it was argued that this hemisphere could not exist, and when he discovered it, it was claimed that it had been known for a long time.”
A separate Quote Investigator article about the quotation ascribed to Voltaire is available here.
Alexander von Humboldt’s book was also published in a German edition in 1836 under the title “Kritische Untersuchungen über die Historische Entwicklung der Geographischen Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt” (“Critical Studies of the Historical Development of Geographical Knowledge”). This was the key passage followed by an English rendering:2
. . . man leugnet zuvörderst die Entdeckung selbst oder die Richtigkeit der Wahrnehmung; späterhin leugnet man ihre Wichtigkeit, endlich ihre Neuheit. Dies sind die drei Stufen des Zweifels . . .
. . . first of all, one denies the discovery itself or the correctness of the perception; later its importance, and finally its novelty are denied. These are the three stages of doubt . . .
Thus, Von Humboldt’s statement achieved further distribution.
In 1942 U.S. historian Samuel Eliot Morison published the biography “Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus” which included a distinct but similar version of the saying attributed to Von Humboldt:3
As Von Humboldt cynically remarked, there are three stages in the popular attitude toward a great discovery: first men doubt its existence, next they deny its importance, and finally they give the credit to someone else.
The third part of Von Humboldt’s original 1836 statement asserted that the novelty of the discovery was doubted. This implied that the discovery had occurred previously. This further implied that someone else must have been the discoverer. Hence, it would be natural to credit someone else. Thus, a close connection exists between the 1836 statement and the 1942 version.
Also, in 1942 Morison’s book was reviewed in “The New York Herald Tribune”, and the reviewer decided to repeat the saying:4
Cynical Von Humboldt once remarked that there are three stages in the popular attitude toward a great discovery; men doubt its existence; then they deny its importance; finally, they give credit to some one else. Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America suffered all three fates.
In 1970 the book review section of “The New York Times” published a “Q and A” section which contained inquiries and responses from readers. A curious correspondent asked the following:5
S.E.M. asks if any reader can locate the following quotation from the works of Alexander von Humboldt: “There are three stages in the popular attitude toward a great discovery; first, men doubt its existence, next they deny its importance, and finally they give the credit to someone else.”
In 1997 “The Whole Shebang” by U.S. science writer Timothy Ferris included this passage:6
This was an example of Alexander von Humboldt’s dictum that there are three stages in the popular attitude toward a great discovery: First, people doubt its existence; then they deny its importance; and finally they give the credit to the wrong person.
In 1999 “If It Ain’t Broke: The Unwritten Laws of Life” by British phrase maven Hugh Rawson mentioned the saying:7
To the German naturalist Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt (he of the Pacific’s Humboldt Current) is credited the corollary: “There are three stages in the popular attitude toward a great discovery; first, men doubt its existence, next they deny its importance, and finally they give the credit to someone else.”
In 2004 journalist Bill Bryson published “A Short History of Nearly Everything” which included the following:8
Alexander von Humboldt, yet another friend, may have had Agassiz at least partly in mind when he observed that there are three stages in scientific discovery: first, people deny that it is true; then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.
In 2004 scholar Thomas L. Hughes published an article in “German Studies Review”. Oddly, he published the modern version of the saying with a footnote pointing to Von Humboldt’s 1836 book:9
According to Alexander von Humboldt, “There are three stages in the popular attitude toward a great discovery. First men doubt its existence; next they deny its importance; and finally they give the credit to someone else.”
Footnote: See Alexander von Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen über die historische Entwicklung der geographischen Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt (Berlin, 1836).
In conclusion, Alexander von Humboldt deserves credit for this expression which he published in French in 1836. In the same year, a version in German was published. By 1942 a closely related variant attributed to Von Humboldt was circulating in English.
Image Notes: Depiction of Earth as seen by Apollo 8 astronauts who were orbiting the moon. Image from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to gianlucac1 and janko_js whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. janko_js located the important 1836 citation in French and other helpful citations. Also, thanks to Gerald Krieghofer and Allan Olley for their research on this topic.
- 1836, Examen Critique de L’Histoire de La Géographie du Nouveau Continent (Critical Examination of the History of Geography of the New Continent) by Alexander von Humboldt, Tome Premier (Volume 1), Quote Page 254 and 255, Librairie de Gide, Paris. (Internet archive at archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1836, Kritische Untersuchungen über die Historische Entwicklung der Geographischen Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt (Critical Studies of the Historical Development of Geographical Knowledge) by Alexander von Humboldt, Quote Page 219 and 220, In der Nicolai’schen Buchhandlung, Berlin. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1942, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus by Samuel Eliot Morison, Section: The First Forty Years, Chapter 6: The Enterprise of the Indies 1474-1492, Quote Page 63, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1942 February 24, New York Herald Tribune, Books and Things by Lewis Gannett, (Book review of “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” by Eliot Morison), Quote Page 19, Column 1, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1970 December 13, The New York Times, Section The New York Times Book Review, Q: A:, Discovery, Quote Page 47, Column 1, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1997, The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report by Timothy Ferris, Chapter 7: Cosmic Evolution, Quote Page 173, Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1999, If It Ain’t Broke: The Unwritten Laws of Life by Hugh Rawson, Topic: The Matthew Effect, Quote Page 151, Penguin Books, London, England. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2004 (2003 Copyright), A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Part 6: The Road To Us, Chapter 27: Ice Time, Quote Page 421, Broadway Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2004 October, German Studies Review, Volume 27, Number 3, Article: “The German Discovery of America”: A Review of the Controversy over Pining’s 1473 Voyage of Exploration by Thomas L. Hughes (Senior Visiting Research Scholar, German Historical Institute), Start Page 503, Quote Page 503, Note: A summary of this paper was delivered in a lecture at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. on February 25, 2003, Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies Association. (JSTOR) link ↩︎