Where is It?

A few quotes about how to find things: the geological art & science of exploration and discovery.

• "Gold is where you find it." An old adage or saying with no specific source.

• “Where oil is first found is in the minds of men.” - geologist Wallace Pratt, as quoted recently by the AAPG.

• "It is the genius of a people that determines how much oil shall be reduced to possession; the presence of oil in the earth is not enough. Gold is where you find it, according to an old adage, but judging from the record of our experience, oil must be sought first of all in our minds." (Wallace Pratt, 1943.)

• "We usually find oil in new places with new ideas. When we go to a new area we can find oil with an old idea. Sometimes also we find oil in an old place with a new idea, but we seldom find much oil in an old place with an old idea." (Parke Dickey, Tulsa Geological Society Digest of 1958, v. 26, p. 84.)

The last two quotes were quoted on this web page. I didn't find any exact publication location for the Pratt quote.