Great GIS, maps & cartography quotes

Question

Programmers' list has been a pleasure to read. Stats' list is growing fast as well. So perhaps there is a place for separate one on this site?

Please share your nuggets of wisdom / humour / inspiration from the world of GIS, cartography and mapping.

score 35 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 17 '13 at 15:54

"Here be dragons"

The phrase "Here Be Dragons" (or hic sunt dracones) appears on maps such as the Lenox Globe (from early 1500s) and is now considered to be map shorthand for Here Be Other Stuff We Don't Quite Know About, rather than a claim to have seen a fire-breathing monster.

Usually placed to fill whitespace (un-known uncharted lands or seas) on old maps.

http://www.virginmedia.com/digital/features/how-did-we-ever-believe-that.php?ssid=8

Another

"The Earth is Flat"

http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

dedicated to unraveling the true mysteries of the universe and demonstrating that the earth is flat and that Round Earth doctrine is little more than an elaborate hoax

julien · Answer 2 · 2014-06-10T12:12:24.323

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Let's start with:

"Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things"

Known as "the first law of geography" (Tobler W., (1970) "A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region". Economic Geography, 46(2): 234-240)

edited Jun 10 '14 at 12:12

answered Aug 07 '10 at 16:13

julien

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score 26 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 20 '10 at 17:03

I always thought there was a cartographic streak in the writers of the TV show Blackadder.

As the Elizabethan Blackadder is preparing to sail around the world he's told:

The foremost cartographers of the land have prepared this for you; it's a map of the area that you'll be traversing. [Blackadder opens it up and sees it is blank] -They'll be very grateful if you could just fill it in as you go along.

As WWI Blackadder is crossing no-mans land to spy on the Germans:

Blackadder: Now, where the hell are we?

George: Well, it's difficult to say, we appear to have crawled into an area marked with mushrooms.

Blackadder: [patiently] What do those symbols denote?

George: It says "mine". So, these mushrooms must belong to the man who made the map.

Blackadder: Either that, or we're in the middle of a mine-field.

George: So, he owns the field as well?

At army HQ:

General: Where's my map. Ah.... God, it's a barren, featureless desert out there, isn't it.

Captain (whispering): Other side sir.

At army HQ:

General: Look, this is the amount of land we've recaptured since yesterday. Erm, what is the actual scale of this map, Darling?

Captain: Erm, one-to-one, Sir.

Melchett:Come again?

Captain: Er, the map is actually life-size, Sir. It's superbly detailed. Look, look, there's a little worm.

General: Oh, yes. So the actual amount of land retaken is?

[Captain whips out a tape measure amd measures the table.]

Captain: Seventeen square feet, Sir.

General: Excellent. So you see those young men didn't die horribly in vain after all.

score 26 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 17 '13 at 12:34

26

"GIS technology is kind of like Google Earth, but beeetter."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

edited Feb 17 '13 at 12:34

answered Aug 08 '10 at 01:42

jakc

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score 25 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:36

25

“There is no such thing as information overload, only bad design.”

–Edward Tufte

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:36

underdark

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answered Aug 09 '10 at 06:16

nature

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score 21 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 20:41

21

Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.

— Terry Pratchett

answered Aug 07 '10 at 20:41

scw

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score 20 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 20:46

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 Mapmakers

score 18 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

18

Geographers never get lost. They just do accidental field work.

-- Nicholas Chrisman

Note: I know it is more generic than GIS, maps and cartography, but very applicable.

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

underdark

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answered Oct 12 '10 at 00:55

score 13 · Answer 9 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

13

“I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it hard to believe.”

—Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

underdark

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answered Aug 22 '10 at 06:44

bvmou

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score 13 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 15:27

13

Question: Why can fish measure distances so well?

Answer: Because they have their own scales.

edited Jun 11 '20 at 15:27

Community

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answered Aug 09 '10 at 05:59

nature

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score 13 · Answer 11 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:34

13

“The early days of GIS were very lonely. No-one knew what it meant.”

–Roger Tomlinson

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:34

underdark

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answered Aug 09 '10 at 06:28

nature

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score 11 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 01:12

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The map is not the territory. - Alfred Korzybski

answered Oct 12 '10 at 01:12

Kirk Kuykendall

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score 11 · Answer 13 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

11

“If you want a database that has everything, you’ve got it. It’s out there. It’s called reality.”

–Scott Morehouse, Director of Software Development, ESRI

I have rephrased this quote and often use it as:

“If you want a map that has everything, you’ve got it. It’s out there. It’s called Earth.”

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

underdark

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nature

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score 10 · Answer 14 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

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“Maps are like campfires – everyone gathers around them, because they allow people to understand complex issues at a glance, and find agreement about how to help the land.”

– Sonoma Ecology Center, GIS/IS Program Web Site

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

underdark

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answered Aug 09 '10 at 06:31

nature

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score 9 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 20 '10 at 12:56

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"Can you squish it and rotate it? ... I don't think our [commercial] lot looks big enough on the map, can you make it larger?"

answered Aug 20 '10 at 12:56

dassouki

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real life example? ;] – radek Oct 10 '11 at 10:03

score 7 · Answer 16 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

7

"I want anyone who has never used command-line Arc... ...to leave the room right now."

Hitler

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:35

underdark

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jakc

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score 7 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 13:59

One of mine - and I'd appreciate it if someone tell me who to attribute it to is this:

"Data quality improves with time and distance from the source"

Something to keep in mind when dealing with GIS data. I'd originally heard it from a member of the League of Real Surveyors. Best characterized by this cartoon.

score 7 · Answer 18 · answered Feb 18 '13 at 15:12

How about the appearance of the (fictional) 'Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality' in Season 2 of West Wing? (link to a 4 min clip on you tube) They lobby for the replacement of Mercator Projection maps in schools with Peters Projection maps.

JOSH ...you’re telling me that Germany isn’t where we think it is?

FALLOW Nothing’s where you think it is.

C.J. Where is it?

FALLOW I’m glad you asked. [brings up a new map, which has its continents significantly squished northward] The Peters Projection.

...

C.J. What the hell is that?

FALLOW It’s where you’ve been living this whole time. Should we continue?

Then they continue with a short discussion about map projections and social equality.

(script quotes from http://communicationsoffice.tripod.com/2-16.txt)

score 7 · Answer 19 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 15:27

From Sylvie and Bruno Concluded by Lewis Carroll (1893):

"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. Now let me ask you another question. What is the smallest world you would care to inhabit?"

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/620/pg620.txt

score 6 · Answer 20 · answered Oct 07 '10 at 13:09

6

Everything happens somewhere.

answered Oct 07 '10 at 13:09

julien

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score 6 · Answer 21 · edited Feb 17 '13 at 14:58

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"The last thing you think of and the first thing you need, a map."

I read it years ago, I think by a USA Colonel but cannot find the original to cerdit him with it

edited Feb 17 '13 at 14:58

underdark

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answered Oct 18 '12 at 05:53

Rob

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score 6 · Answer 22 · edited Aug 09 '10 at 07:00

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Geography has been described as the Los Angeles among academic disciplines because it spreads over a very wide area, merges with its neighbours, and we have a hard time finding the central business area.

Pattison and Natoli

edited Aug 09 '10 at 07:00

scw

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answered Aug 09 '10 at 02:27

fmark

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score 5 · Answer 23 · answered Jul 21 '13 at 19:18

I like:

"one would have to be singularly unimaginative to experience no excitement when confronted with a map, not least a map of unfamiliar territory studded with exotic names"

by Cordelia Oliver, 1989

And the stat of this one has been mentioned but I thought I'd post the fuller version:

"I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and find it hard to believe. The names, the shapes of the woodlands, the courses of the roads and rivers, the prehistoric footsteps of man still distinctly traceable up hill and down dale, the mills and the ruins, the ponds and the ferries, perhaps the standing stone or the druidic circle on the heath; here is an inexhaustible fund of interest for any man with eyes to see or twopence-worth of imagination to understand with"

Robert Louis Stevenson explaining the inspiration for Treasure Island

score 5 · Answer 24 · edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:34

5

"The application of GIS is limited only by the imagination of those who use it".

Jack Dangermond

edited Oct 18 '12 at 06:34

underdark

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answered Aug 09 '10 at 06:12

nature

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score 4 · Answer 25 · answered Aug 20 '10 at 17:38

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our earth is a globe
whose surface we probe
no map can replace her
but just try to trace her

steve waterman's the world of maps (first stanza. You've no idea how hard it was not to post more, the next two at the least!).

answered Aug 20 '10 at 17:38

matt wilkie

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score 3 · Answer 26 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 16:25

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"Well I'm sorry San Andreas, but everyone says that it's your fault"

answered Oct 12 '10 at 16:25

Mark Ireland

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score 3 · Answer 27 · answered Feb 17 '13 at 15:42

3

Without geography, you're nowhere!

-Jimmy Buffett

answered Feb 17 '13 at 15:42

Dan C

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score 3 · Answer 28 · answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:56

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Made this one myself one day:

"Making a map with GIS is like playing the piano. Somebody else has done the difficult job of making the tools, you just need to know what buttons to push!"

it's true for me, as i don't know programming at all :p

answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:56

Paul Nicoara

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I like this... It's another reason GIS is an Art... cartographers are just as artistic as pianists... Masterpiece of a different science – LMHall Oct 21 '13 at 15:46

score 2 · Answer 29 · answered Aug 09 '10 at 04:33

2

GIS is the nervous system for the planet.

Jack Dangermond

answered Aug 09 '10 at 04:33

Britt Wescott

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score 2 · Answer 30 · answered Aug 09 '10 at 04:52

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"the map is a database & the database is a map" i think from jack dangermond

answered Aug 09 '10 at 04:52

coldfusionPaul

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score 1 · Answer 31 · answered Nov 13 '14 at 14:03

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Psychoanalysis is to the subconscious what cartography is to Sahara dunes.

-- Anonnymous --

-

History is nothing but geography over time, such as geography is nothing but history in space.

-- Élisée Reclus -- (translated from french)

answered Nov 13 '14 at 14:03

Below the Radar

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score 1 · Answer 32 · answered Jan 03 '15 at 23:08

In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

Jorge Luis Borges, On Exactitude of Science

http://www.idb.arch.ethz.ch/files/borges_on_exactitude_in_science.pdf

score 1 · Answer 33 · answered Jan 04 '15 at 14:34

1

"A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams." - Gilbert Grosvenor

answered Jan 04 '15 at 14:34

MrBubbles

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score 1 · Answer 34 · answered Oct 11 '10 at 20:47

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NAD83: We're not in Kansas anymore

Does anybody know who coined this quote?

answered Oct 11 '10 at 20:47

Jaime Soto

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score 1 · Answer 35 · answered Feb 17 '13 at 20:24

There's always the Bellman's map:

 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!"

The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll.

score 0 · Answer 36 · answered Jun 10 '14 at 08:45

0

GIS, ... more than just maps

This came out of pure frustration in a conversation as my non-GIS boss did not truly understand what we do.

answered Jun 10 '14 at 08:45

user32204

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score 0 · Answer 37 · answered Jun 10 '14 at 11:52

It's Turtles all the way down

Here's the detailed explanation via Wikkipedia:

Turtles all the way down

It's only tangentially related to cartography and GIS, but it reminds me that I should question my assumptions and be wary of dogma. Plus it makes me think of Discworld.

Great GIS, maps & cartography quotes

37 Answers37

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