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

— Waldo Tobler

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Notes from Wikiquote

This text is generally cited as the first instance of Tobler's first law of geography within the body of literature.

More quotes by Waldo Tobler

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.

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.

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

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.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Waldo Tobler (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.