“To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.”
— Stephen Hawking, Astrophysicist
“Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.”
— Miles Kington, Journalist
“Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.”
— Socrates, Philosopher
“The strongest affection and utmost zeal should, I think, promote the studies concerned with the most beautiful objects. This is the discipline that deals with the universe’s divine revolutions, the stars’ motions, sizes, distances, risings and settings . . . for what is more beautiful than heaven?”
— Nicolaus Copernicus, Astronomer
“We live in a changing universe and few things are changing faster than our conception of it.”
— Timothy Ferris, Author & Astronomer
“We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened.”
— Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
— Carl Sagan, Cosmologist
“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
— Sarah Williams, Poet, 1837-1868
” Each of us is a tiny being, permitted to ride on the outermost skin of one of the smaller planets for a few dozen trips around the local star.”
— Carl Sagan, Cosmologist