Astronomy has its practical uses, without which man's intellect would scarcely rouse itself to those speculations; but its greatest result is a revelation of immensity pervaded by one informing mind; and this revelation is made by astronomy only in the same sense in which the telescope reveals the stars to the eye of the astronomer.

The World's Best Orations: From the Earliest Period to the Present, Time (Volume 9), The Secret Beyond Science (p. 3476)