Charles Francis Richter Quotes

There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.

It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.

Normally I don't watch myself, because I'm not very objective.

Whether my columns are worth reading isn't for me to say.

I am the worst judge of my books.

It is once again the vexing problem of identity within variety; without a solution to this disturbing problem there can be no system, no classification.

The judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.

I can't judge my own stuff. That's for others. But those are the three things that I admire.

The will to label will always prevail over what's being labeled, usually at the expense of either truth or understanding.

I can never read this book, just like I can never see a movie that I wrote a screenplay for. I can read it and see it physically, but I can't accurately judge it. I'm too close to it. If I read it ten times I'll have ten different reactions.

To measure is to know. If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.

There is no subject on which there is a greater habitual difference of judgment between a man judging for himself, and the same man judging for other people.

I refuse to use terms like 'optimist' or 'pessimist' and instead prefer 'realist.'

I don't like to talk about my work. People should see my work and form their opinion based on that, not because of something I said.

One thing scientists do is to find order among a large number of facts, and one way to do that across fields as diverse as biology, geology, physics and astronomy is through classification.

One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.

Reviewing a book written by someone you're living with and sleeping with is, needless to say, wrong.

Every way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.

It's very hard to be objective about something you're in, especially when you set it up against things that you experienced as a child.

[In science any model depends on a pre-chosen taxonomy] a set of classifications into which we divide the enormous complexity of the real world... Land, labor, and capital are extremely heterogeneous aggregates, not much better than earth, air, fire, and water.

It's very difficult for me to evaluate my own stuff.

A man ought never to trust another mans evaluation of a third mans disposition.

Taxonomy is described sometimes as a science and sometimes as an art, but really it’s a battleground.

A classification is a definition comprising a system of definitions.

Distrust your judgment the moment you can discern the shadow of a personal motive in it.