Astronomy Quotes - Page 12

• The sciences, even the best,-mathematics and astronomy,-are like sportsmen, who seize whatever prey offers, even without being able to make any use of it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Science, Use, Able

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.229, Penguin

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• The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Exercise, Science, Mind

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.362, Princeton University Press

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• I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first.

  Terry Pratchett

  Fiction, Firsts, Science Fiction

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• To most people, I fancy, the stars are beautiful; but if you asked why, they would be at a loss to reply, until they remembered what they had heard about astronomy, and the great size and distance and possible habitation of those orbs. ... [We] persuade ourselves that the power of the starry heavens lies in the suggestion of astronomical facts.

  George Santayana

  Beautiful, Stars, Distance

  George Santayana (2012). “The Sense of Beauty”, p.64, Courier Corporation

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• The calendar is intolerable to all wisdom, the horror of all astronomy, and a laughing stock from a mathematician's point of view.

  Roger Bacon

  Views, Laughing, Calendars

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• For, to my mind, this is a certain principle, that nothing is here treated of but the visible form of the world. He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. (on commenting the text of Genesis 1:6)

  John Calvin

  Art, Mind, Principles

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• The poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation, and animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but employs them as signs. He knows why the plain, or meadow of space, was strown with these flowers we call suns, and moons, and stars; why the deep is adorned with animals, with men, and gods; for, in every word he speaks he rides on them as the horses of thought.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Horse, Stars, Flower

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.192, Penguin

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• I have a love for astronomy; Aruna, my wife, and I love travelling, so whenever we get an opportunity, we set off to explore places that have tickled our interest. We are also wildlife enthusiasts.

  Viswanathan Anand

  Opportunity, Wife, Wildlife

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• Stars are beautiful, but they must not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was.

  James M. Barrie

  Beautiful, Stars, Long Ago

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

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• The end of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nineteenth century are remarkable for the small amount of scientific movement going on in this country, especially in its more exact departments. Mathematics were at the last gasp, and astronomy nearly so; I mean in those members of its frame which depend upon precise measurement and systematic calculation. The chilling torpor of routine had begun to spread itself over all those branches of Science which wanted the excitement of experimental research.

  John Herschel

  Country, Mean, Science

  "Memoir of Francis Baily".

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• (...) The new nine muses, Commerce, Operatic Music, Amor, Publicity, Manufacture, Liberty of Specch, Plural Voting, Gastronomy, Private Hygiene, Seaside Concert Entertainments, Painless Obstetrics and Astronomy for the People.

  James Joyce

  Hygiene, People, Voting

  James Joyce (2013). “Delphi Works of James Joyce (Illustrated)”, p.600, Delphi Classics

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• Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.

  C. S. Lewis

  Book, Reading, Woods

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.203, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• There are a multitude of allied branches of knowledge connected with mans condition; the relation of these to political economy is analogous to the connexion of mechanics, astronomy, optics, sound, heat, and every other branch more or less of physical science, with pure mathematics.

  William Stanley Jevons

  Knowledge, Political, Sound

  William Stanley Jevons (1970). “The Theory of Political Economy”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• People get cranky when you burst their bubble. Over time, advances in astronomy have relentlessly reinforced the utter insignificance of Earth on a celestial scale. Fortunately, political and religious leaders stopped barbecuing astronomers for saying so, turning their spits with human-rights activists instead.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Religious, Rights, People

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• I merely say that all reading for pleasure is escape, whether it be Greek, mathematics, astronomy, Benedetto Croce, or The Diary of the Forgotten Man. To say otherwise is to be an intellectual snob, and a juvenile at the art of living.

  Raymond Chandler

  Art, Reading, Men

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Simple Art of Murder”, p.17, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.

  Harry Emerson Fosdick

  Change, Spiritual, Stars

  "The Living of These Days : An Autobiography". Book by Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1956.

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• The Gospel that represents Jesus Christ, not as a system of truth to be received into the mind like I should receive a system of philosophy, or astronomy, but it represents Him as a beal, living, mighty Saviour, able to save me now.

  Catherine Booth

  Jesus, Philosophy, Real

  "Aggressive Christianity: Practical Sermons".

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• By the way, were we to find life-forms on Venus, we would probably call them Venutians, just as people from Mars would be Martians. But according to rules of Latin genitives, to be “of Venus” ought to make you a Venereal. Unfortunately, medical doctors reached that word before astronomers did. Can’t blame them, I suppose. Venereal disease long predates astronomy, which itself stands as only the second oldest profession.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Latin, Doctors, Long

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.80, W. W. Norton & Company

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• ...for a long time I wanted to become a theologian... now, however, behold how through my efforts God is being debated in astronomy.

  Johannes Kepler

  Long, Effort, Theologian

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• I loved Pluto. I was totally fascinated by Pluto. When I started in astronomy, I started looking at this region of the sky because I thought it was so interesting out there.

  Mike Brown

  Sky, Interesting, Pluto

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

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• The heaven is spherical in shape, and moves as a sphere; the earth too is sensibly spherical in shape, when taken as a whole; in position it lies in the middle of the heavens very much like its center; in size and distance it has the ratio of a point to the sphere of the fixed stars; and it has no motion from place to place.

  Ptolemy

  Stars, Distance, Lying

  Ptolemy (1984). “Ptolemy's Almagest”, Bloomsbury Academic

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• I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It does not behoove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indians and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity.

  Voltaire

  Astrology, Etc, Ancient India

  "Sanskrit Reader 1: A Reader in Sanskrit Literature". Book by Heiko Kretschmer, 2015.

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• For the twenty million Americans who are hungry tonight, for the homeless freezing tonight, literature is as useless as a knowledge of astronomy.

  Andre Dubus

  Twenties, Tonight, Useless

  Andre Dubus (2010). “Broken Vessels: Essays”, p.67, Open Road Media

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• If cathedrals had been universities If dungeons of the Inquisition had been laboratories If Christians had believed in character instead of creed If they had taken from the bible only that which is GOOD and thrown away the wicked and absurd If temple domes had been observatories If priests had been philosophers If missionaries had taught useful arts instead of bible lore If astrology had been astronomy If the black arts had been chemistry If superstition had been science If religion had been humanity The world then would be a heaven filled with love, and liberty and joy

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Christian, Art, Taken

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• It seems to me that all the evidence points to Apollonius as the founder of Greek mathematical astronomy.

  Otto E. Neugebauer

  Greek, Mathematical, Evidence

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