Charles Francis Richter

[In plotting earthquake measurements] the range between the largest and smallest magnitudes seemed unmanageably large. Dr. Beno Gutenberg then made the natural…

— Charles Francis Richter

it is good to have measured myself, to recognize my limitations.

— Charles Francis Richter

According to Democritus, truth lies at the bottom of a well, the water of which serves as a mirror in which objects…

— Charles Francis Richter

My main point today is that usually one gets what one expects, but very rarely in the way one expected it.

— Charles Francis Richter

The usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played…

— Charles Francis Richter

Intensity like signal strength will generally fall off with distance from the source, although it also depends on the local conditions and…

— Charles Francis Richter

Most loss of life and property has been due to the collapse of antiquated and unsafe structures, mostly of brick and other…

— Charles Francis Richter

I have a sense of humor; but over the years that sense has developed one blind spot. I can no longer laugh…

— Charles Francis Richter

It is a common remark that men talk most who think least; just as frogs cease their quacking when a light is…

— Charles Francis Richter

We would have been happy if we could have assigned just three categories, large, medium, and small; the point is, we wanted…

— Charles Francis Richter

By moving them vertically, a representative mean curve could be formed, and individual events were then characterized by individual logarithmic differences from…

— Charles Francis Richter

I'm glad to see the press now referring to the open-ended Richter scale.

— Charles Francis Richter

Logarithmic plots are a device of the devil.

— Charles Francis Richter

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

— Charles Francis Richter

In every area of the world where there is earthquake risk, there are still many buildings of this type; it is very…

— Charles Francis Richter

Spring makes everything young again except man.

— Charles Francis Richter

I usually point out that most loss of life and property has been due to the collapse of antiquated and unsafe structures,…

— Charles Francis Richter