Waldo R. Tobler Quotes

Philosophically, the phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on in the inside; a sufficiently common occurrence as to warrant being called the second law of geography.

The conceptualization of a map as a data-storage medium leads directly to the concept of it as a computer input element.

Soldiers have medals, scholars have publications.

It seems that some basic tasks, common to all cartography, may in the future be largely automated, and that the volume of maps produced in a given time will be increased while the cost is reduced.

I invoke the first law of geography: everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things

Maps are generalized representations since it is clearly impossible to display reality in all its complexity at a reduced scale. Not too surprisingly, map makers are unable to provide explicit abstract statements about the process of map generalization, but some empirical evidence suggests constancy of information content per map centimeter squared, regardless of map scale.

Science proceeds by detecting structures embedded in observational data. It is no simple matter to separate these general structures from the specific details.