Astronomer

Explore 20 quotes by Astronomers

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if we only face the facts, as they say, "with both eyes open."

Nicolaus Copernicus

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

More information about this quote

Topic

Scientific progress

Author

Nicolaus Copernicus

Source

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

Latin

Time

1543 1540s 16th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Copernicus, Nicolaus. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium [On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres]. Nuremburg: Johannes Petreius, 1543, bk. 1, ch. 9.

Current Citation

Copernicus, Nicolaus. On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres. Prometheus, 1995, bk. 1, ch. 9.

I am much occupied with the investigation of physical causes. My aim in this is to show that the celestial machine is not similar to a divine animated being, but similar to a clock.

Johannes Kepler

More information about this quote

Topic

The laws of physics The universe

Author

Johannes Kepler

Medium

Letter

Language

German

Time

1605 1600s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kepler, Johannes. Letter to Herwart von Hohenbury. 10 Feb. 1605.

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

Robert Jastrow

God and the Astronomers

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Topic

Science and religion

Author

Robert Jastrow

Source

God and the Astronomers

Genre

Religious literature Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jastrow, Robert. God and the Astronomers. W. W. Norton & Company, 1978, ch. 9.

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.

Carl Sagan

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More information about this quote

Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Nature of time

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980, ch. 2.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

Apple pie Origin of the universe The universe

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"The Lives of Stars." Presented by Carl Sagan. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, season 1, episode 8. PBS, 23 Nov. 1980.

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.

Edwin Hubble

The Exploration of Space

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Topic

Man and the universe Science

Author

Edwin Hubble

Source

The Exploration of Space Harper’s Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hubble, Edwin. “The Exploration of Space.” Harper’s Magazine, May 1929.

The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be. Our contemplations of the cosmos stir us. There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the grandest of mysteries.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

The universe Origin of the universe Space The mysterious

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Carl Sagan

Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

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More information about this quote

Topic

Genius

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. Random House, 1979, pt. 2, ch. 5.

A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them—without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret... Humans—who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals—have had an understandable penchant for pretending that animals do not feel pain... It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer... The behavior of other animals, especially the chimps and bonobos, renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals Animals

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are. Random House, 1992, ch. 19.

If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all the books in the British Museum.

Arthur Eddington

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and animals Probability Randomness

Author

Arthur Eddington

Source

The Nature of the Physical World

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. "The Nature Of The Physical World." Gifford lecture. January – March 1927, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new ones rise.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

Con artists and charlatans

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Genre

Scientific literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House, 1995, ch. 13.

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that has happened in politics or religion.

Carl Sagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Changing one's mind Scientific progress

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. "The Burden of Skepticism." CSICOP conference. 3 Apr. 1987, Pasadena, CA, USA. Keynote address.

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

Fred Hoyle

More information about this quote

Topic

Space

Speaker

Fred Hoyle

Source

Sayings of the Week Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hoyle, Fred. "Sayings of the Week." The Observer, 9 Sept. 1979.

For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders, undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation?

Carl Sagan

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More information about this quote

Topic

Technological progress Progress Human potential Human nature

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Random House, 1994.

I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.

Arthur Eddington

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Topic

Big vs. small Stars Atoms Physics

Speaker

Arthur Eddington

Source

Stars and Atoms

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. Stars and Atoms. The Clarendon Press, 1938, lecture 1. Originally a discourse called "Stars and Atoms." Meeting of the British Association. Aug. 1926, Oxford, England, UK.

I shall use the phrase "time's arrow" to express this one way property of time which has no analogue in space.

Arthur S. Eddington

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of time

Author

Arthur S. Eddington

Source

The Nature of the Physical World

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. "The Nature Of The Physical World." Gifford lecture. January – March 1927, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Carl Sagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Evidence

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Four Cosmic Questions Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. "Four Cosmic Questions." Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium. Random House, 1997, ch. 5.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love... If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.

Carl Sagan

Cosmos

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More information about this quote

Topic

Empathy Interconnectedness of all people History

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980.

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years.

Carl Sagan

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More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Books

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"The Persistence of Memory." Presented by Carl Sagan. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, season 1, episode 11. PBS, 7 Dec. 1980.

I am standing on the threshold about to enter a room. It is a complicated business. In the first place I must shove against an atmosphere pressing with a force of fourteen pounds on every square inch of my body. I must make sure of landing on a plank travelling at twenty miles a second round the sun-a fraction of a second too early or too late, the plank would be miles away. I must do this whilst hanging from a round planet, head outward into space, and with a wind of aether blowing at no one knows how many miles a second through every interstice of my body.

Arthur Eddington

More information about this quote

Topic

Physics

Author

Arthur Eddington

Source

The Nature of the Physical World

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. "The Nature Of The Physical World." Gifford lecture. January – March 1927, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.