Galileo Galilei Quotes - Page 4

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• I have been judged vehemently suspect of heresy, that is, of having held and believed that the sun in the centre of the universe and immoveable, and that the earth is not at the center of same, and that it does move. Wishing however, to remove from the minds of your Eminences and all faithful Christians this vehement suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally all and every error, heresy, and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. (Quoted in Shea and Artigas 194)

  Galileo Galilei

  Christian, Moving, Heart

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• The laws of Nature are written in the language of mathematics...the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word.

  Galileo Galilei

  Math, Circles, Law

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• But of all other stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind must have been his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very far distant either in time or place? And with no greater difficulty than the various arrangement of two dozen little signs upon paper? Let this be the seal of all the admirable inventions of man.

  Galileo Galilei

  Men, Two, Secret

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• Nature is written in mathematical language.

  Galileo Galilei

  Language, Mathematics, Mathematical

  Galileo Galilei (1997). “Galileo on the World Systems: A New Abridged Translation and Guide”, p.350, Univ of California Press

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• Nature's great book is written in mathematics.

  Galileo Galilei

  Book, Math, Science

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• We must say that there are as many squares as there are numbers.

  Galileo Galilei

  Education, Squares, Numbers

  Galileo Galilei (2010). “Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences”, p.32, Cosimo, Inc.

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• What has philosophy got to do with measuring anything? It's the mathematicians you have to trust, and they measure the skies like we measure a field.

  Galileo Galilei

  Philosophy, Sky, Fields

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• I do not know what to say in a case so surprising, so unlooked for and so novel.

  Galileo Galilei

  Cases, Novel, Surprising

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• It was granted to me alone to discover all the new phenomena in the sky and nothing to anybody else. This is the truth which neither envy nor malice can supress.

  Galileo Galilei

  Sky, Envy, Granted

  "How three wise men and a tube helped us find our place in the universe" by Tim Radford, www.theguardian.com. December 18, 2009.

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• Philosophy itself cannot but benefit from our disputes, for if our conceptions prove true, new achievements will be made; if false, their refutation will further confirm the original doctrines.

  Galileo Galilei

  Philosophy, Thinking, Achievement

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• Oh, my dear Kepler, how I wish that we could have one hearty laugh together. Here, at Padua, is the principal professor of philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass, [telescope] which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? what shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly! and to hear the professor of philosophy at Pisa laboring before the grand duke with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations, to charm the new planets out of the sky.

  Galileo Galilei

  Laughter, Philosophy, Science

  30 Copy quote

• But some, besides allegiance to their original error, possess I know not what fanciful interest in remaining hostile not so much toward the things in question as toward their discoverer.

  Galileo Galilei

  Errors, Allegiance, Interest

  "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615". sourcebooks.fordham.edu.

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• Among the great men who have philosophized about [the action of the tides], the one who surprised me most is Kepler. He was a person of independent genius, [but he] became interested in the action of the moon on the water, and in other occult phenomena, and similar childishness.

  Galileo Galilei

  Independent, Science, Moon

  33 Copy quote

• The doctrine that the earth is neither the center of the universe nor immovable, but moves even with a daily rotation, is absurd, and both philosophically and theologically false, and at the least an error of faith.

  Galileo Galilei

  Moving, Errors, Religion

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• The hypothesis is pretty; its only fault is that it is neither demonstrated nor demonstrable. Who does not see that this is purely arbitrary fiction that puts nothingness as existing and proposes nothing more than simple noncontradiciton?

  Galileo Galilei

  Simple, Thinking, Doe

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• We see only the simple motion of descent, since that other circular one common to the Earth, the tower, and ourselves remains imperceptible. There remains perceptible to us only that of the stone, which is not shared by us; and, because of this, sense shows it as by a straight line, always parallel to the tower, which is built upright and perpendicular upon the terrestrial surface.

  Galileo Galilei

  Science, Simple, Towers

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• I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree: The intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how the heavens go.

  Galileo Galilei

  Science, Heaven, Degrees

  Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, 1615.

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• The Divine intellect indeed knows infinitely more propositions [than we can ever know]. But with regard to those few which the human intellect does understand, I believe that its knowledge equals the Divine in objective certainty.

  Galileo Galilei

  Believe, Doe, Divine

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• The difficulties in the study of the infinite arise because we attempt, with our finite minds, to discuss the infinite, assigning to it those properties which we give to the finite and limited; but this... is wrong, for we cannot speak of infinite quantities as being the one greater or less than or equal to another.

  Galileo Galilei

  Giving, Mind, Study

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• The surface of the Moon is not smooth, uniform, and precisely spherical as a great number of philosophers believe it to be, but is uneven, rough, and full of cavities and prominences, being not unlike the face of the Earth, relieved by chains of mountains and deep valleys.

  Galileo Galilei

  Believe, Moon, Numbers

  Galileo Galilei, Raymond John Seeger (1966). “Men of physics: Galileo Galilei, his life and his works”

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• I, Galileo, son of the late Vicenzo Galilei, swear that I never said that the prime numbers are useless. What I said was that you cannot count lunar craters by counting 2, 3, 5, 7.

  Galileo Galilei

  Son, Numbers, Useless

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• If there were as great a scarcity of soil as of jewels or precious metals, there would not be a prince who would not spend a bushel of diamonds and rubies and a cartload of gold just to have enough earth to plant a jasmine in a little pot, or to sow an orange seed and watch it sprout, grow, and produce its handsome leaves, its fragrant flowers, and fine fruit.

  Galileo Galilei

  Flower, Jewels, Orange

  Galileo Galilei, Andrea Frova, Mariapiera Marenzana (2006). “Thus Spoke Galileo: The Great Scientist's Ideas and Their Relevance to the Present Day”, p.174, Oxford University Press

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• My dear Kepler, what would you say of the learned here, who, replete with the pertinacity of the asp, have steadfastly refused to cast a glance through the telescope? What shall we make of this? Shall we laugh, or shall we cry?

  Galileo Galilei

  Laughing, Kepler, Telescopes

  Letter to Johannes Kepler (1610), as quoted in "The Crime of Galileo" by Giorgio De Santillana, 1955.

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• In time you may discover everything that can be discovered, and still your progress will only be progress away from humanity. The distance between you and them can one day become so great that your joyous cry over some new gain could be answered by an universal shriek of horror.

  Galileo Galilei

  Distance, Humanity, Progress

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• But what exceeds all wonders, I have discovered four new planets and observed their proper and particular motions, different among themselves and from the motions of all the other stars; and these new planets move about another very large star [Jupiter] like Venus and Mercury, and perchance the other known planets, move about the Sun. As soon as this tract, which I shall send to all the philosophers and mathematicians as an announcement, is finished, I shall send a copy to the Most Serene Grand Duke, together with an excellent spyglass, so that he can verify all these truths.

  Galileo Galilei

  Stars, Moving, Science

  "Sidereus Nuncius, Or The Sidereal Messenger". Book by Galileo Galilei, March 13, 1610.

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