#astronomy
60 quotes
“The mind of man is quick to see the errors of others, yet slow to recognize its own.”
“O God, I am a great sinner, but I have never doubted Thy mercy.”
“Now it is clear to me that the new star is not some kind of comet or a fiery meteor, but a star shining in the firmament.”
“I have studied all things celestial, and now I know the heavens as if they were my own backyard.”
“Let me not seem to have lived in vain. Last words, in Dreyer (1890) p. 386.”
“Those who study the stars have God for a teacher. Reported in Bob Perlongo, The Everyday Almanac , 2nd ed. (1995 [1979]) p. 15”
“An astronomer must be cosmopolitan because ignorant statesmen can not be expected to value their services. An Itinery written by Fynes Morrison , &c. (London, 1617) fol., p. 60, quoted in J. L. E. Dreyer, Tycho Brahe (Edinburgh, 1890) p. 261.”
“Epistolarum astronomicarum liber primus (1596) in Tychonis Brahe opera omnia , vol. 6, p. 23, l. 32”
“Simplicibus itaque verbis gaudet Mathematica Veritas, cum etiam per se simplex sit Veritatis oratio. Mathematical Truth therefore rejoices in simple words, since the language of Truth is itself simple.”
“For it is now quite clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens. J. L. E. Dreyer (ed.) Tychonis Brahe opera omnia , vol. 3, p. 111, ll. 17”
“Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife. As quoted by Shafique N. Virani, The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A search for Salvation (2007) p. 28.”
“Temporis filia veritas; cui me obstetricari non pudet.”
“I used to measure the heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth. Although my mind was heaven”
“I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses. As quoted by Gloria Pierre, (K)new Words: Redefine Your Communication (2005) p. 147.”
“There is a force in the earth which causes the moon to move. Essay dedicated to the Archduke Ferdinand , as quoted by Max Caspar, Kepler (1993) Sect. II, Ch. 9, p. 110.”
“In Terra inest virtus, quae Lunam del.”
“We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment. As quoted by Carl Sagan Cosmos”
“Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.”
“Nature uses as little as possible of anything. As quoted by W. H. Auden , Louis Kronenberger , Viking Book of Aphorisms: A Personal Selection (1920) p. 98; also by Joseph Silk, The Infinite Cosmos: Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology”
“My goal is to show that the heavenly machine is not a kind of divine living being but similar to a clockwork insofar as all the manifold motions are taken care of by one single absolutely simple magnetic bodily force, as in a clockwork all motion is taken care of by a simple weight. And indeed I also show how this physical representation can be presented by calculation and geometrically. Letter to Herwart von Hohenberg (Feb 10, 1605) Johannes Kepler, Gessamelte Werke , 15:146, quoted in Max Caspar, Kepler”
“The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.”
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.”
“Nature … is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her, or cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operation are understandable to men. For that reason it appears that nothing physical which sense”
“Copernicus never discusses matters of religion or faith , nor does he use argument that depend in any way upon the authority of sacred writings which he might have interpreted erroneously. ... He did not ignore the Bible, but he knew very well that if his doctrine were proved, then it could not contradict the Scriptures when they were rightly understood.”
“To this end they make a shield of their hypocritical zeal for religion. They go about invoking the Bible, which they would have minister to their deceitful purposes. Contrary to the sense of the Bible and the intention of the holy Fathers, if I am not mistaken, they would extend such authorities until even in purely physical matters”
“Persisting in their original resolve to destroy me and everything mine by any means they can think of, these men are aware of my views in astronomy and philosophy. They know that as to the arrangement of the parts of the universe , I hold the sun to be situated motionless in the center of the revolution of the celestial orbs while the earth revolves about the sun. They know also that I support this position not only by refuting the arguments of Ptolemy and Aristotle , but by producing many counter”
“Some years ago, as Your Serene Highness well knows, I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our own age. The novelty of these things, as well as some consequences which followed from them in contradiction to the physical notions commonly held among academic philosophers, stirred up against me no small number of professors”
“It seems to me that it was well said by Madama Serenissima, and insisted on by your reverence, that the Holy Scripture cannot err, and that the decrees therein contained are absolutely true and inviolable. But I should have in your place added that, though Scripture cannot err, its expounders and interpreters are liable to err in many ways ; and one error in particular would be most grave and most frequent, if we always stopped short at the literal signification of the words.”
“Surely it is a great thing to increase the numerous host of fixed stars previously visible to the unaided vision , adding countless more which have never before been seen, exposing these plainly to the eye in numbers ten times exceeding the old and familiar stars. Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo”
“Translation by Albert Van Helden in Sidereus Nuncius (Chicago, 1989), 62”
“The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.”
“The cosmologist is the historian of the universe.”
“Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive.”
“We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of world it is.”
“The exploration of space is the greatest adventure humanity can undertake.”
“With increasing distance, our knowledge fades.”
“Observations always involve theory.”
“The universe is expanding, and with it, so is our understanding.”
“The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.”
“Equipped with our five senses, we explore the universe around us.”
“If the apparent magnitudes of the nebulae are corrected merely for the effect of the red”
“I chucked the law for astronomy, and I knew that even if I were second”
“She deserved the Nobel Prize for her work. Often said by Hubble about Henrietta Swan Leavitt .”
“We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is”
“The whole thing is so much bigger than I am, and I can't understand it, so I just trust myself to it; and forget about it. Hubble's reply when asked about his beliefs from a friend, as quoted in Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae (1996) by Gale E. Christianson, p. 183.”
“...there must be no favored location in the universe, no center, no boundary; all must see the universe alike. And, in order to ensure this situation, the cosmologist postulates spatial isotropy and spatial homogeneity. The Observational Approach to Cosmology , 1937, p. 63”
“The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. The Realm of the Nebulae”
“Eventually, we reach the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows and search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The Realm of the Nebulae”
“Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive. The Realm of the Nebulae”
“The Exploration of Space”
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. The Demon-Haunted World (1995)”
“Books are the seeds of civilization. Cosmos (1980), Ch. 1”
“We are made of star stuff”
“The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Cosmos (1980), Ch. 1”
“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love. Contact (1985), Ch. 1”
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Cosmos (1980), Ch. 1”
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood were all made in the interiors of collapsing stars. Cosmos (1980), Ch. 1”
“We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. Cosmos (1980), Ch. 1”
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. Cosmos (1980), Ch. 1”
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known”