Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder where you are. Looking up is no solution; The sky's so full of light pollution.
Super-Earths are how we call a family of planets... up to two times larger and about ten times more massive than the Earth.
It is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.
If the constellations had been named in the twentieth century, I suppose we would see bicycles and refrigerators in the sky.
We don't know how to identify intelligence over interstellar distances, so what we do instead is use technology for a proxy.
It's better to read first rate science fiction than second rate science-it's a lot more fun, and no more likely to be wrong.
I knew there was a school where women could study astronomy. So... it never occurred to me that I couldn't be an astronomer.
The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue.
We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am the great silent spaces between worlds.'
Young man, I am afraid you are wasting your time. If there were any more planets they would have been found long before this.
There we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial.
A traveller, lost on a desert plain, feels that the recognition of one star, the Pole star, is of itself a great acquisition.
Pseudoscience is like a virus. At low levels, it's no big deal, but when it reaches a certain threshold it becomes sickening.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
The limitless content of our universe might be only one instance of a large (and possibly infinite) number of other universes.
In the most modern theories of physics probability seems to have replaced aether as "the nominative of the verb 'to undulate'."
In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.
It is all a matter of time scale. An event that would be unthinkable in a hundred years may be inevitable in a hundred million.
All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will conform to our predispositions.
The universe is so unique and perfect that it could not have originated by chance but was divined by flawless, creative design.
Yesterday I had a Shaker visitor, and today a Catholic; and the more I see and hear, the less do I care about church doctrines.
Jupiter, a world far larger than Earth, is so warm that it currently radiates more internal heat than it receives from the Sun.
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.
It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.
If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.
You have to have hope. Otherwise, I don't think you could handle it. Of course, you have to have both luck and pluck to make it.
The great spirals, with their enormous radial velocities and insensible proper motions, apparently lie outside our Solar system.
The love of one's own sex is precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor retained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere.
There is something of the same pleasure in noticing the hues of the stars that there is in looking at a flower garden in autumn.
I think all countries need to aim to cut the CO2 emissions per person, taking account of externalities like imports and exports.
Space travel is utter bilge. I don't think anybody will ever put up enough money to do such a thing. . . . It is all rather rot.
A single discovery within a lifetime is a very remarkable thing. Two over the course of a career-why, you'd be very lucky indeed.
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe
Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.
Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.
Jupiter was very large and bright. Apparently, there was a small reddish star appended to its side. This is called "an alliance."
But why look back at all? Why turn your eyes to your shadow, when, by looking upward, you see your rainbow in the same direction?
Frankly, I'll believe in horoscopes the day I can describe my personality to an astrologer and they tell me what date I was born.
The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.
I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.
Of course, if one ignores contradictory observations, one can claim to have an "elegant" or "robust" theory. But it isn't science.
Science is the only self-correcting human institution, but it also is a process that progresses only by showing itself to be wrong.
The pursuit of truth in science transcends national boundaries. It takes us beyond hatred and anger and fear. It is the best of us.
Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs.
We live at a moment when our relationships to each other, and to all other beings with whom we share this planet, are up for grabs.
In short there is not a shred of objective evidence to support the hypothesis that life began in an organic soup here on the Earth.
Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available, we shall, in an emotional sense, acquire an additional dimension.
You could just as well say that an agnostic is a deeply religious person with at least a rudimentary knowledge of human fallibility.
I'm only a four-dimensional creature. Haven't got a clue how to visualise infinity. Even Einstein hadn't. I know because I asked him