The Universe appears to be a device contrived for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British writer
How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village, Part 4, ch. 27 (1992)
(Source)
A number of variants can be found, e.g., "I sometimes think the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers" or "The universe: a device contrived for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers." The above is the only one I could find from a source by Clarke himself.
Quotations about:
astronomy
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time.Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883) English writer, poet, translator
“Chronomoros,” l. 33ff, Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal (5 Dec 1840)
(Source)
Now because 18 months ago the first dawn, three months ago broad daylight, but a very few days ago the full sun of the most highly remarkable spectacle has risen — nothing holds me back. I can give myself up to the sacred frenzy, I can have the insolence to make a full confession to mortal men that I have stolen the golden vessel of the Egyptians to make from them a tabernacle for my God far from the confines of the land of Egypt. If you forgive me I shall rejoice; if you are angry, I shall bear it; I am indeed casting the die and writing the book, either for my contemporaries or for posterity to read, it matters not which: let the book await its reader for a hundred years; God himself has waited six thousand years for his work to be seen.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German astronomer
The Harmonies of the World [Harmonices Mundi], Book 5, Introduction (1618)
Other translations:
- "It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer." [in David Brewster, The Martyrs of Science; or, the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler (1841)]
- "It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer."
- "I feel carried away and possessed by an unutterable rapture over the divine spectacle of heavenly harmony ... I write a book for the present time, or for posterity. It is all the same to me. It may wait a hundred years for its readers, as God has also waited six thousand years for an onlooker." [in S Krantz and B Blank, Calculus: Multivariable (2006)]
- "I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice.; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him."
I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree; “That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how the heaven goes.”
[Lo qui direi che quello che intesi da persona ecclesiastica costituita in eminentissimo grado, ciò è l’intenzione dello Spirito Santo essere d’insegnarci come si vadia al cielo, e non come vadia il cielo.]
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, polymath
Letter (1615) to Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany [tr. Drake (1957)]
(Source)
Arguing that the Bible not being clear on the question of heliocentrism is unimportant; that the purpose of the Bible is the highest, salvation of the soul, not to explain the mechanics of the universe.
(Source (Italian))
While often attributed directly to Galileo, he is clearly quoting someone, generally thought to be Cardinal Caesar Baronius (1538–1607), with whom he was acquainted. For more see here.
Variant: "The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."
