James Irving Manatt

“ The secret of this enduring influence is to be sought in Whitney's individuality; it is a secret of character. His was, indeed, an opportunity; he came in the fulness of time to find a new world waiting to be won for a new science; but the opportunity opened alike to all his generation. He alone measured up to it and mastered it. He laid his hand upon it, and it became achievement.
This he did through his absolute devotion, his singleness of purpose. He never sought his own; he never spared or coddled himself. If any man ever forgot himself in the service of Science, it was Whitney. ”

“ More than any other man of his time, he had the mind to precipitate the one and to deliver the other. The cave-dweller he headed toward the light, and he undergirded airy speculation with ponderable substance. Of all men, he it was who made ours an historical science, rooted in reality. ”

“ He never thought of lions in the way, but it was just as well for lions to get out of the way. He never roared, but on occasion there was that in his still, small voice to make the pretender tremble. This impression of sternness sometimes made by his righteous judgments may justify a more intimate word.
To one pupil, at least,—and one as little deserving as any,—he was the incarnation of benignity. How well I remember my first call upon him just four and twenty years ago,—the first great man I had ever met, and to this day the greatest man I have ever known. ”