Simon Newcomb Quotes

Quotes about:

• Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.

  Simon Newcomb

  Airplane, Space, Machines

  12 Copy quote

• As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity.

  Simon Newcomb

  New Year, Memorial Day, Adversity

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  18 Copy quote

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

  Simon Newcomb

  Knowledge, Science, Limits

  11 Copy quote

• If my impressions are correct, our educational planing mill cuts down all the knots of genius, and reduces the best of the men who go through it to much the same standard.

  Simon Newcomb

  Education, Cutting, Science

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  8 Copy quote

• All attempts at artificial aviation are not only dangerous to human life, but foredoomed to failure from the engineering standpoint.

  Simon Newcomb

  Engineering, Aviation, Human Life

  4 Copy quote

• I had not yet gotten into the world of light. But I felt as one who, standing outside, could knock against the wall and hear an answering knock from within.

  Simon Newcomb

  Wall, Light, World

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  7 Copy quote

• The time was not yet ripe for the growth of mathematical science among us, and any development that might have taken place in that direction was rudely stopped by the civil war.

  Simon Newcomb

  War, Taken, Rude

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  5 Copy quote

• Whenever a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an accessible region parties were sent out to observe it.

  Simon Newcomb

  Party, Eclipse Of The Sun, Regions

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  76 Copy quote

• Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope. . . . The example of the bird does not prove that man can fly. Imagine the proud possessor of the aeroplane darting through the air at a speed of several hundred feet per second. It is the speed alone that sustains him. How is he ever going to stop?

  Simon Newcomb

  Future, Men, Air

  4 Copy quote

• Construction of an aerial vehicle which can carry even a single man . . . requires the discovery of some new metal or force. Even with such a discovery, we could not expect one to do more than carry its owner.

  Simon Newcomb

  Men, Discovery, Flight

  7 Copy quote

• Ten decimal places of π are sufficient to give the circumference of the earth to a fraction of an inch, and thirty decimal places would give the circumference of the visible universe to a quantity imperceptible to the most powerful microscope.

  Simon Newcomb

  Powerful, Giving, Earth

  4 Copy quote

• One of the most beautiful hypotheses ever propounded in physics is ... the Dynamical Theory of Gases

  Simon Newcomb

  Beautiful, Science, Physics

  4 Copy quote

• Quite likely the twentieth century is destined to see the natural forces which will enable us to fly from continent to continent with a speed far exceeding that of a bird.

  Simon Newcomb

  Airplane, Bird, Speed

  11 Copy quote

• As the existence of a corps of professors of mathematics is peculiar to our navy, as well as an apparent, perhaps a real, anomaly, some account of it may be of interest.

  Simon Newcomb

  Real, Sensual, Navy

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  23 Copy quote

• The result was that, if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening, I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme.

  Simon Newcomb

  Morning, Night, Two

  7 Copy quote

• Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope.

  Simon Newcomb

  Science, Men, Class

  8 Copy quote

• I finally reached the conclusion that mathematics was the study I was best fitted to follow, though I did not clearly see in what way I should turn the subject to account.

  Simon Newcomb

  Way, Study, Mathematics

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  7 Copy quote

• The demonstration that no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery and known forms of force, can be united in a practical machine by which men shall fly along distances through the air, seems to the writer as complete as it is possible for the demonstration to be.

  Simon Newcomb

  Distance, Future, Airplane

  6 Copy quote

• What we now call school training, the pursuit of fixed studies at stated hours under the constant guidance of a teacher, I could scarcely be said to have enjoyed.

  Simon Newcomb

  Teacher, School, Training

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  8 Copy quote

• My father followed, during most of his life, the precarious occupation of a country school teacher.

  Simon Newcomb

  Country, Teacher, Father

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  7 Copy quote

• The beginning of 1856 found me teaching in the family of a planter named Bryan, residing in Prince George County, Md., some fifteen or twenty miles from Washington.

  Simon Newcomb

  Teaching, Fifteen, Twenties

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  52 Copy quote

• Though born in Nova Scotia, I am of almost pure New England descent.

  Simon Newcomb

  England, Nova Scotia, Descent

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  7 Copy quote

• In 1860 a total eclipse of the sun was visible in British America.

  Simon Newcomb

  America, Eclipse Of The Sun, British

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

  76 Copy quote

• I was taught the alphabet by my aunts before I was four years old, and I was reading the Bible in class and beginning geography when I was six.

  Simon Newcomb

  Reading, Aunt, Years

  4 Copy quote

• A few years later the Naval Academy was founded at Annapolis, and a similar course was pursued to provide it with a corps of instructors.

  Simon Newcomb

  Years, Annapolis, Naval

  4 Copy quote

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