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Astronomy Quotes

Browse 1699 quotes about Astronomy.

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Astronomy Quotes

“We know from astronomy that the universe had a beginning, from physics that the future is both open and unpredictable, from geology and paleontology that the whole of life has been a process of change and transformation. From biology we know that our tissues are not impenetrable reservoirs of vital magic, but a stunning matrix of complex wonders, ultimately explicable in terms of biochemistry and molecular biology. With such knowledge we can see, perhaps for the first time, why a Creator would have allowed our species to be fashioned by the process of evolution.”

KnowsFirstsHas BeensWholeUniverseProcessTermWonderMagicEvolutionFirst TimeTransformationSpeciesComplexesCreatorPhysicsAstronomyBiologyUnpredictableTissuesGeologyStunningReservoirsBiochemistryPaleontologyMolecular BiologyProcess Of Change
Author:Kenneth R. Miller
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“The issue, as correctly emphasized by Carl Sagan, is the probability of the evolution of high intelligence and an electronic civilization on an inhabited world. Once we have life (and almost surely it will be very different from life on Earth), what is the probability of its developing a lineage with high intelligence? On Earth, among millions of lineages of organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence; this makes me believe in its utter improbability.”

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Author:Ernst Mayr
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“If a large number of people who are convinced alien abductions are real are hypnotising even larger numbers of others who suspect they might be, then it is likely there will be many alien abduction narratives flying around, as, indeed, there are. Of course, this is not proof they are not true, but it does provide a persuasive context for a simple psychosocial explanation. Hypnotism is a technique that triggers a mass storytelling project in which all the stories are linked.”

PeopleIfsDoeRealStoriesMightCoursesSimpleNumbersProjectsMassConvincedProofTechniqueAstronomyFlyingStorytellingAliensNarrativeExplanationSuspectsLinkedTriggersLarge NumbersPersuasiveAbductionAlien Abduction
Author:Bryan Appleyard
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“The destruction of this planet would have no significance on a cosmic scale: to an observer in the Andromeda nebula, the sign of our extinction would be no more than a match flaring for a second in the heavens: and if that match does blaze in the darkness there will be none to mourn a race that used a power that could have lit a beacon in the stars to light its funeral pyre. The choice is ours.”

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Author:Stanley Kubrick
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“If we are still here to witness the destruction of our planet some five billion years or more hence, then we will have achieved something so unprecedented in the history of life that we should be willing to sing our swansong with joy - Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.”

IfsShouldYearsStillsJoyFiveWillingPlanetsDestructionBillionsAstronomyWitnessOur PlanetUnprecedentedGloriaHistory Of Life
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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“In 1911 the little town of Nakhla in Egypt was the scene of one of the most remarkable events in historym when a chunk of rock fell from the sky and killed a dog. This is the only known canine fatality caused by a cosmic object. Improbably though this encounter was already, its truly extraordinary nature was revealed only decades later when scientists found that the culprit was not a common-or-garden meteorite, but a piece of the planet Mars.”

LittlesFoundCommonKnownPiecesSkyRocksDogEventsObjectsPlanetsSceneGardenScientistTownsExtraordinaryDecadesAstronomyEncountersRemarkableCosmicMarsEgyptChunksCanineLittle TownsFatalityCulprit
Book:The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life
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“By late accounts from Rotterdam, that city seems to be in a high state of philosophical excitement. Indeed, phenomena have there occurred of a nature so completely unexpected--so entirely novel--so utterly at variance with preconceived opinions--as to leave no doubt on my mind that long ere this all Europe is in an uproar, all physics in a ferment, all reason and astronomy together by the ears.”

MindLongBookStatesReasonSeemsTogetherCitiesOpinionNovelDoubtLateEuropeEarsAccountsPhilosophicalPhysicsAstronomyExcitementNo DoubtUnexpectedVarianceRotterdam
Book:The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated Edition): Annabel Lee, Ligeia, The Sphinx, The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-tale Heart, Berenice, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Philosophy of Composition, The Poetic Principle, Eureka…
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“The sun rejoicing round the earth, announced Daily the wisdom, power and love of God. The moon awoke, and from her maiden face, Shedding her cloudy locks, looked meekly forth, And with her virgin stars walked in the heavens-- Walked nightly there, conversing as she walked, Of purity, and holiness, and God.”

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Book:The poetical works of Hemans, Heber and Pollok
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“The good thing about life is that you can research anywhere you are. I'm just constantly gathering little bits of information all the time. I'm always grabbing something out of the headlines, out of the news or reading a book about astronomy and just trying to figure out how to get my head around the facts but the bigger stress is trying to connect those facts to normal life situations and our relationship with God.”

TryingLittlesBookFactsLife IsReadingBitsSituationFiguresInformationNormalLittle BitNewsResearchBiggerStressGood ThingsAstronomyOur RelationshipGatheringHeadlinesRelationship With GodNormal LifeGrabbing
Author:Louie Giglio
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“Politics is the only serious. subject that men think themselves qualified to act upon without any previous education or instruction whatever. If it happened to be astronomy, or botany, or medicine, or law, he would never be allowed to work in any of these arts, or to take a decisive part in the history of any one of these sciences without having, at least, acquired: the A B C of it; but the awful fact of politics is that we do not take the trouble seriously to understand the political situation.”

IfsThinkingMenArtFactsLawPoliticalSituationHappenedTroubleSubjectsSeriousElectionMedicineAstronomyAwfulInstructionQualifiedElection DayBotanySerious Subjects
Author:Hugh Price Hughes
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“Astronomy is so easy to love. ... Fairly or not, physics is associated with nuclear bombs and nuclear waste, chemistry with pesticides, biology with Frankenfood and designer-gene superbabies. But astronomers are like responsible ecotourists, squinting at the scenery through high-quality optical devices, taking nothing but images that may be computer-enhanced for public distribution, leaving nothing but a few Land Rover footprints on faraway Martian soil, and OK, OK, maybe the Land Rover, too.”

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Author:Natalie Angier
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“We live today in a world where most of the really important developments in everything from math and physics and astronomy to public policy and psychology and classical music are so extremely abstract and technically complex and context-dependent that it's next to impossible for the ordinary citizen to feel that they (the developments) have much relevance to her actual life.”

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Author:David Foster Wallace
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“In astronomy, the law of gravitation is plainly better worth knowing than the position of a particular planet on a particular night, or even on every night throughout a year. There are in the law a splendour and simplicity and sense of mastery which illuminate a mass of otherwise uninteresting details. But in history the matter is far otherwise. Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws.”

YearsMeanMatterFactsTogetherLawScienceNightValuesInterestHistoryKnowingStudyPossibilityPositionParticularPlanetsMassAccountsHistoricalProfoundSimplicityDetailsWorthyAstronomyMasteryEvery NightSplendourIntrinsic ValueGravitationHistorical Facts
Author:Bertrand Russell
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“Reading, writing, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, physics, and more were all at one time deep occult secrets. Today, many of these things are taught to children before they begin school. THE OCCULTISM OF THE PAST BECOMES THE SCIENCE OF THE FUTURE.”

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Book:Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts
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“Then, though I prize my friends, I cannot afford to talk with them and study their visions, lest I lose my own. It would indeed give me a certain household joy to quit this lofty seeking, this spiritual astronomy, or search of stars, and come down to warm sympathies with you; but then I know well I shall mourn always the vanishing of my mighty gods.”

KnowsGivingWellsSpiritualJoyCertainStarsFriendshipLosesMy OwnVisionStudyFriendsMy FriendsGive MeSeekingWarmQuittingAstronomyPrizeHouseholdMournLoftyMighty GodVanishing
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“The most important steps that I followed were studying math and science in school. I was always interested in physics and astronomy and chemistry and I continued to study those subjects through high school and college on into graduate school. That's what prepared me for being an astronaut; it actually gave me the qualifications to be selected to be an astronaut.”

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Author:Sally Ride
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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.”

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Book:Ptolemy's Almagest
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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”

IfsWorldArtCharacterWould BeChristianJoyHumanityHeavenBlackLibertyTakenTaughtFilledUniversityPhilosopherAstronomyAbsurdWickedThrownTemplesPriestsChemistrySuperstitionsCreedsAstrologyLaboratoryCathedralsInquisitionDungeonsDomesBlack Art
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our Earth is not the center of the universe, but merely one of nine planets circling one of billions of stars. From biology we learned that humans were not specially created by God but evolved along with tens of millions of other species.”

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Author:Jared Diamond
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