Georg Forster
said
The degree of pleasure which may result from the perusal of a work, depends not only upon the variety of the subject, but likewise upon the purity and graces of style.
— Preface
Georg Forster
German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary (1754-1794)
- Fame58.4
- Momentum25.0
- Scientists rank#164
Source-basedBreakout
- Fame58.4
- Momentum25.0
- Scientists rank#164
- Wikipedia10.7K
Lived 1754–1794, aged 40
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Summary
Updated 2026-06-13
He sailed with Cook at seventeen, wrote one of the clearest accounts of what Europeans found in the Pacific, and got elected to the Royal Society before he could legally drink in most countries today. Then he threw it all in with the French Revolution and died in exile at thirty-nine.
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Georg Forster joined his father on James Cook's second Pacific voyage as a teenager; his book A Voyage Round the World became a founding text of scientific travel writing and earned him a Royal Society seat at twenty-two. He spent the next decade teaching natural history in Kassel and Vilnius, then landed as head librarian at the University of Mainz in 1788, translating Cook's diaries and writing essays that would shape Alexander von Humboldt's thinking. When French forces took Mainz in 1792, Forster helped establish the Mainz Republic, Germany's first attempt at republican government. He went…
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Sourced, dated quotes from Georg Forster
Georg Forster
said
[...] each vulgar opinion, proved to be erroneous, is an approximation to truth [...].
— Book I, ch. II, The Passage from Madeira to the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope.
Georg Forster
said
It is the natural fault of young people to think too well of mankind [...].
— Book I, ch. II, The Passage from Madeira to the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope.
Georg Forster
said
Born to live our stated time on this globe, every one who puts a premature period to our existence here, offends the laws of the Creator.
— Book III, ch. IV, Third and last stay at Queen Charlotte's Sound, in New Zeeland.
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Fame
Rising58.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
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Momentum25.0
Historical24.4
Source confidence65.0
Completeness65.0
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- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
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