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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• Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

  Voltaire

  Wise, Daughter, Mother

  Voltaire (1989). “Voltaire: selections”, MacMillan Publishing Company

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• Cosmology is serious business and in our hearts we are nothing if not cosmologists, hanging in a cold cage sifting the ruthless jewels of existence.

  Dennis Overbye

  Heart, Jewels, Sifting

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• The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.

  Edwin Powell Hubble

  History, Horizon, Hubble Space Telescope

  Edwin Powell Hubble (1936). “The Realm of the Nebulæ”

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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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• I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.

  Sally Ride

  Math, Favorite Subject, My Favorite

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• The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Science, Mystery, Wonder

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• Astronomy's much more fun when you're not an astronomer

  Brian May

  Fun, Astronomers

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• Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting.

  Vera Rubin

  Uplifting, Science, Demand

  "Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters". Book by Vera Rubin, 1997.

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• Astronomy? Impossible to understand and madness to investigate.

  Sophocles

  Impossible, Madness, Cosmology

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

  Miles Kington

  Work, Night, Musician

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• Astronomy taught us our insignificance in Nature.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Nature, Teaching, Science

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.421, Penguin

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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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• 

  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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• The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.

  Peter De Vries

  Nature, Science, World

  Peter De Vries (2014). “Let Me Count the Ways: A Novel”, p.192, Open Road Media

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• The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Stars, Certain, Reverence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.9, Library of America

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• Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

  Fred Hoyle

  Inspirational, Funny, Space

  1979 Quoted in the Observer,'Sayings of the Week', 9 Sep.

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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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• This sight... is by far the noblest astronomy affords.

  Edmond Halley

  Sight

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• Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Men, Discovery, Understanding

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook C 23, 1799.

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• For astronomy is not only pleasant, but also very useful to be known: it cannot be denied that this art unfolds the admirable wisdom of God.

  John Calvin

  Art, Admirable, Pleasant

  John Calvin (2012). “John Calvin's Commentaries On Genesis 1-23 (Annotated Edition)”, p.60, Jazzybee Verlag

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• If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• If there is anything that can bind the heavenly mind of man to this dreary exile of our earthly home and can reconcile us with our fate so that one can enjoy living,-then it is verily the enjoyment of the mathematical sciences and astronomy.

  Johannes Kepler

  Home, Fate, Men

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• On the left-hand side of the field equation we may add the fundamental tensor guv, multiplied by a universal constant, -λ, at present unknown, without destroying the general covariance.

  Albert Einstein

  Hands, Left Hand, Add

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