British Astronomer Quotes

William Herschel
Fred Hoyle
Norman Lockyer
William Huggins
Bernard Lovell
Alastair Reynolds
James Challis

"Have we discovered our Galaxy yet?" And I think the answer to this question is "No, not quite". There is plenty of work ahead for the next generation of astronomers.

When we gaze at the starlit heavens, and admire the silvery radiance of the Milky Way, we would fain believe that there is absolute silence and rest, a perfect haven of repose.

When Euclid framed his definitions He did not miss "the point"; Space was prescribed by his conditions For angles twain conjoint.

The world of man lies midway in scale between the inner space of atoms and particles, and the outer space of stars and galaxies. The exploration of both these regions stretches our imagination to its limits.

The wisest astronomer living cannot tell us how far the stars reach...for there is no getting to the borders of space.

It seems to me that the tendency of our mathematical instruction and... examinations has been of late years to promote the acquisition of a knowledge of formal relations of symbols and the power of readily producing them,

James Challis
James Challis
Twas brillig and the slithy toves Brought plans of telescopes fair to see. The Jabberwock, he clapped his hands And said, "That's just for me."

We cannot long observe the beauteous Parts of the visible Creation, not only those of this World on which we live, but also the Myriads of bright Bodies round us, with any Attention, without being convinced, that a Power supreme, and of a Nature unknown to us, presides in, and governs it...

To be a true scientist is only to have an inkling of the full extent of man's ignorance.

The whole procedure [of shooting rockets into space]. presents difficulties of so fundamental a nature, that we are forced to dismiss the notion as essentially impracticable, in spite of the author's insistent appeal to put aside prejudice and to recollect the supposed impossibility of heavier-than-air flight before it was actually accomplished.

Compared with the splendour, the amplitude, the august motions, and the ideas of infinity which the celestial vault presents, the most resplendent terrestrial scenes sink into inanity, and appear unworthy of being set in competition with the glories of the sky.

Yet if we go into space, let us do so humbly, in the spirit of cosmic piety. We know very little. We are face to face with the great unknown and have no right to assume that we are alone in the Solar System.

Astronomy has marched forward with the growth in size of its telescopes.

Bernard Lovell
Bernard Lovell
Victory loses its meaning without the memory of what you've vanquished.

Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
A theory founded on truth, and formed according to the proper rules of science, can ever suffer from a strict examination, by which it would be but the more and more confirmed.

William Huggins
William Huggins
What! the girl I adore by another embraced?
What! the balm of her breath shall another man taste?
What! pressed in the dance by another's man's knee?
What! panting recline on another than me?
Sir, she's yours; you have pressed from the grape its fine blue,
From the rosebud you've shaken the tremulous dew;
What you've touched you may take. Pretty waltzer—adieu!

If eternity is silliness, then infinity of space is sheer madness.

Edward Robert Harrison
Edward Robert Harrison
The Carmelites and other religious orders, who subsist only on the productions of the vegetable world, live to a greater age than those who feed on meat, and in general herbivorous persons are milder in their dispositions than other people.

He thought he saw electrons swift Their charge and mass combine. He looked again and saw it was The cosmic sounding line. The population then, said he, Must be 1079.

We have to beef up our searches, which are now pretty dismal, so we can find out about these things before we get hit. … It takes a dramatic event to get people's attention, and we thought the comet crash with Jupiter might have done the job. … we tend to ignore an extraterrestrial hazard that could reduce the planet to rubble. … What we really need is a good scare.

The work of the true man of Science is a perpetual striving after a better and closer knowledge of the planet on which his lot is cast, and of the universe in the vastness of which that planet is lost.

Norman Lockyer
Norman Lockyer
We live in an era when it seems legitimate to try everything conceivable within the known laws of physics, particularly in the absence of data.

The development of human awareness of the Universe evolved from the geocentric cosmology of the ancient world via the heliocentric cosmology of the Renaissance and the egocentric cosmology of the nineteenth century, to the ultimate destination of the Big-Bang theory of the expanding Universe.

Joseph Silk
Joseph Silk
The cardinal truth emerging from these inquiries is that of the extreme isolation of the solar system. A skiff in the midst of a vast unfurrowed ocean is not more utterly alone.

Agnes Mary Clerke
Agnes Mary Clerke
The nation that neglects creative thought today will assuredly have its nose ground into the dust of tomorrow.

Fred Hoyle
Fred Hoyle