Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Vita Luna

Quote by Vita Luna

Work

Breckan and Co.'s Strange Discoveries Volume 2: The Aftermath

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Vita Luna

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Vita Luna. more

You May Also Like

“HARP music is really music from Heaven...That is why it sounds so sweet. If you stop and think about it---a PIANO is really a HARP turned sideways, with pedals. When a pianist sits down and begins to play---the piano sends forth its own unique HARP sounds......For one who is truly trained with excellence, it is as though the two HARPS link up together, and a little taste of Heaven's music comes forth to bring the sweetness that can be found in no other instruments here on earth.”

Piano MusicHarp Music
Author:Jennifer Lynn "GENNA LYNNA" -daughter of Marsha Carol Watson Gandy
Create image

“Modern civilization depends on science … James Smithson was well aware that knowledge should not be viewed as existing in isolated parts, but as a whole, each portion of which throws light on all the other, and that the tendency of all is to improve the human mind, and give it new sources of power and enjoyment … narrow minds think nothing of importance but their own favorite pursuit, but liberal views exclude no branch of science or literature, for they all contribute to sweeten, to adorn, and to embellish life … science is the pursuit above all which impresses us with the capacity of man for intellectual and moral progress and awakens the human intellect to aspiration for a higher condition of humanity. [Joseph Henry was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, named after its benefactor, James Smithson.]”

LifeScienceHumanityLiteratureMoralKnowledgeProgressCivilizationIntellectImprovementPursuitLiberalModern CivilizationSmithsonianMoral ProgressSmithsonian InstituteJames SmithsonJoseph HenrySmithsonSmithsonian Institution
Author:Joseph Henry
Create image

“The telescope, in enabling us to look far out into space, also allows us to look back in time. Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second. When we look up into the daylight sky, we are not seeing the sun as it currently is but as it was about eight minutes ago, since it takes that long for the light radiating from this familiar star to travel 93 million miles to Earth. Similarly, when the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) receives light waves from the depths of the universe, those waves will have originated from points as far as 76 sextillion (76,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) miles away. It will have taken those waves some 13 billion years to arrive on earth, meaning they left their source about a million years after the big bang, and roughly nine to ten years before Earth even formed.”

Big BangSpeed Of LightSmithsonianGiant Magellan TelescopeGmtLas Campanas Peak ChileSkywatching
Book:The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects
Create image

“As I conceptualized the National Museum of African American History and Culture, I knew it had to fulfill Mamie Mobley's charge: to be a place that carried the burden of history and the weight of memory, regardless of how painful or difficult it was. At the core of the museum, therefore, would be a commitment to remember.”

HistoryMemoryPainful MemoriesSmithsonian
Book:A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump
Create image

“The public space of the museum is not my favorite, loud and full of tourists and school groups and hungry hordes. Their curiosity is endearing---they're acolytes for the natural world. And the marble gleams with architectural detail and precious objects all around. But on these, my gray days, entering the building carries the weight of death: all the specimens, thousands of carcasses of every species, stuffed or otherwise retrieved from oblivion so we can know them, yet all dead. The birds I draw and paint, all dead. On these days, my only defense is to imagine every pinned butterfly taking wing, every stuffed marsupial waking up, every preserved plant specimen blooming and carpeting the marble floor like a time-lapse forest, and every bird coming to life, flying up to the dome and away. On the days when the fog comes and hooks into my gut like a sharp-toothed parasite, these visions can save me. The steadier, more consistent salvation, of course, is the work. I can lose myself for hours drawing, for instance, the common loon, with its inky head, white banding at the neck, and an intricacy of pin dots and fractured rectangles cascading across the wings. With the right precision, I can bring the deadness of a bird skin to a striking facsimile of life.”

ArtistLife And DeathMuseumSmithsonianOrnithologyField Of Study
Book:The Marsh Queen
Create image

“Delores, the Wise Woman of Botany, told me while I was in Washington that every seven years, employees of my pay grade are entitled to a sabbatical, and I'm two years late in taking mine. She helped me fill out the form. I listed my purpose: "to study the birds of the southeastern United States with an emphasis on the marshlands of Florida." Hugh Adamson sputtered an objection, but he couldn't do a thing. Apparently, the sabbatical is a long-standing Smithsonian policy that would actually take an Act of Congress to reverse. I didn't write on the form of my other intention: to freelance, get my name out there, and see whether Florida is where I belong.”

PolicyEntitledPurpose In LifeSmithsonianSabbaticalOrnithology
Book:The Marsh Queen
Create image