Astronomy Quotes

• Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

  Plato

  Philosophical, Science, Soul

  Plato, Julius A. Sigler (1997). “Education: Ends and Means”, p.27, University Press of America

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• Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

  Carl Sagan

  Positive, Hope, Educational

  Nobel Award Ceremony Speech by Professor Olga Botner, Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 2017.

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• We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Positive

  Lady Windermere's Fan act 3 (1892)

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• On Earth, among millions of lineages or organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence ; this makes me believe its utter improbablity.

  Ernst Mayr

  Believe, Events, Earth

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  The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Iron, Apples

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.255, Ballantine Books

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• There are no black holes - in the sense of regimes from which light can't escape to infinity. There are however apparent horizons which persist for a period of time.

  Stephen Hawking

  Light, Black, Horizon

  "Stephen Hawking: There Are No Black Holes" by Audrey Barrick, www.christianpost.com. January 25, 2014.

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• Astronomy is the science of the harmony of infinite expanse.

  John Scott Russell

  Science, Infinite, Harmony

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• Astronomy is useful because it raises us above ourselves; it is useful because it is grand; .... It shows us how small is man's body, how great his mind, since his intelligence can embrace the whole of this dazzling immensity, where his body is only an obscure point, and enjoy its silent harmony.

  Henri Poincare

  Men, Mind, Body

  Henri Poincare (2012). “The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare”, p.473, Modern Library

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• The barrier has begun to yield.

  John Herschel

  Yield, Cosmology, Barriers

  John Herschel (2014). “Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews”, p.550, Cambridge University Press

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• For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  Inspirational, Dream, Stars

  Vincent van Gogh, Rachel Barnes (1990). “Van Gogh by Vincent”

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• Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Night, Light

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• There is in the universe neither center nor circumference.

  Giordano Bruno

  Cosmology, Universe

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• Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Sea, Space

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.170, Ballantine Books

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• We should do astronomy because it is beautiful and because it is fun. We should do it because people want to know. We want to know our place in the universe and how things happen.

  John N. Bahcall

  Beautiful, Fun, Space

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• Chances are, when we meet intelligent life forms in outer space they're going to be descended from predators.

  Michio Kaku

  Intelligent, Moon, Space

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• Medicine rests upon four pillars - philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics.

  Paracelsus

  Philosophy, Medicine, Four

  Paracelsus, Jolande Jacobi (1951). “Selected Writings”, p.59, Princeton University Press

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• Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.

  Miles Kington

  Work, Night, Musician

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• So far as hypotheses are concerned, let no one expect anything certain from astronomy, which cannot furnish it, lest he accept as the truth ideas conceived for another purpose, and depart from this study a greater fool than when he entered it.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Ideas, Purpose, Fool

  Nicolaus Copernicus, Georg Joachim Rhäticus (1971). “Three Copernican treatises: the Commentariolus of Copernicus, the Letter against Werner, the Narratio prima of Rheticus”, Octagon Press, Limited

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• Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Selfish, Anatomy And Physiology, Astrology

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Emerson's Essays: Top Essays”, p.102, 谷月社

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• We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy.

  Simon Newcomb

  Knowledge, Science, Limits

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• To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.

  Stephen Hawking

  Funny, Crazy, Silly

  Foreword to "The Physics of Star Trek" by Lawrence Krauss, (p. xii), 2007.

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• Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Science, Technology, Telescopes

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• Astronomy, as nothing else can do, teaches men humility.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Humility, Men, Teach

  Arthur C. Clarke (2011). “Report on Planet Three”, p.26, Hachette UK

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• In first place we must observe that the universe is spherical. This is either because that figure is the most perfect, as not being articulated, but whole and complete in itself; or because it is the most capacious and therefore best suited for that which is to contain and preserve all things.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Perfect, Firsts, Figures

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• The discovery in 1846 of the planet Neptune was a dramatic and spectacular achievement of mathematical astronomy. The very existence of this new member of the solar system, and its exact location, were demonstrated with pencil and paper; there was left to observers only the routine task of pointing their telescopes at the spot the mathematicians had marked.

  James R Newman

  Math, Discovery, Achievement

  James R. Newman (2000). “The World of Mathematics”, p.820, Рипол Классик

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