William Herschel Quotes

66 Sourced Quotes

This way of considering the sun removes the great dissimilarity between its condition and that of the other great bodies of the system. The sun then appears to be nothing else than a very eminent, large, and lucid planet '.most probably also inhabited by beings whose organs are adapted to the peculiar circumstances of that vast globe.

William Herschel
I have looked further into space than ever human being did before me. I have observed stars of which the light, it can be proved, must take two million years to reach the earth.

William Herschel
These instruments have play'd me so many tricks that I have at last found them out in many of their humours.
On the problems with telescopes

William Herschel
On the 15th of February, 1786, I discovered that one of my planetary nebula, had a spot in the center, which was more luminous than the rest, and with long attention, a very bright, round, well defined center became visible. I remained not a single moment in doubt, but that the bright center was connected with the rest of the apparent disk.

William Herschel
Instead of inquiring after the nature of the cause of the condensation of nebulous matter, it would indeed be sufficient for the present purpose to call it merely a condensing principle; but since we are already acquainted with the centripetal force of attraction which gives a globular figure to planets, keeps them from flying out of their orbits in tangents, and makes one star revolve around another, why should we not look up to the universal gravitation of matter as the cause of every condensation, accumulation, compression, and concentration of the nebulous matter?

William Herschel
Familiar objects and events are far from presenting themselves to our senses in that aspect and with those connections under which science requires them to be viewed, and which constitute their rational explanation.

William Herschel
The power of penetrating into space by telescopes is very different from magnifying power, and ought to be considered separately.

William Herschel
The difference of the degrees in which the individuals of a great community enjoy the good things of life has been a theme of declaration and discontent in all ages.

William Herschel
The subject of the Construction of the Heavens is of so extensive and important a nature, that we cannot exert too much attention in our endeavors to throw all possible light upon it.

William Herschel
An object may not only contain stars, but also nebulosity not composed of them.

William Herschel
A proportional condensation of the nebulous matter in the brighter places will sufficiently account for their different degree of shining.

William Herschel
When an object is once discovered by a superior power, an inferior one will suffice to see if afterwards.

William Herschel
Suppose an inhabitant of the moon who has not properly considered such analogical reasonings as might induce him to surmise that our earth is inhabited, to give it as his opinion that the use of the earth is to illuminate the moon, when direct daylight cannot be had, etc.

William Herschel
It has generally been supposed that it was a lucky accident that brought this new star to my view; this is an evident mistake. In the regular manner I examined every star of the heavens, not only of that magnitude but many far inferior, it was that night its turn to be discovered.

William Herschel
Hier ist wahrhaftig ein Loch im HimmeU Here, truly, is a hole in the heavens!

William Herschel
That stars are suns can hardly admit of a doubt. The sun turns on its axis; so do variable stars; most probably all stars. Stars have spots like the sun; in some stars we know these spots to be changeable.

William Herschel
'We may... have surmised nebulae to be no other than clusters of stars disguised by their very great distance, but a longer experience and better acquaintance with the nature of nebulae, will not allow a general admission of such a principle, although undoubtedly a cluster of stars may assume a nebulous appearance when it is too remote for us to discern the stars of which it is composed.

William Herschel
An equal scattering of the stars may be admitted in certain calculations; but when we examine the milky way, or the closely compressed clusters of stars... this supposed equality of scattering must be given up.

William Herschel
We may strongly suspect that there is not, in strictness of speaking, one fixed star in the heavens, and reasons which I shall adduce will render this so obvious that there can hardly remain a doubt of the general motion of all the starry systems, and, consequently, of the solar one among the rest.

William Herschel
We need not hesitate to admit that the Sun is richly stored with inhabitants.

William Herschel
If we indulge a fanciful imagination and build worlds of our own, we must not wonder at our going wide from the path of truth and nature; but these will vanish like the Cartesian vortices, that soon gave way when better theories were offered.

William Herschel
As an apology for this prematurity it may be said that the end of all discoveries being communication, we can never be too ready in giving facts and observations, whatever we may be, in reasoning upon them.

William Herschel
A little practice in this business [looking through a telescope] soon makes it easy, especially to one who has already been used to look with both eyes open.

William Herschel
If I should mention any observations that are difficult to be verified I beg the indulgence of observers. I hope it will be found that I have sufficiently guarded against optical illusions, and that I have all along had truth and reality in view as the sole object of my endeavors.

William Herschel
In the year 1783 I finished a very good twenty-foot reflector with a large aperture, and mounted it upon the plan of my present telescope. After two years' observation with it, the great advantage of such apertures appeared so clearly to me that I recurred to my former intention of increasing them still further; and being now sufficiently provided with experience in the work which I wished to undertake, the President of the Royal Society, who is always ready to promote useful undertakings, had the goodness to lay my design before the king. His Majesty was graciously pleased to approve of it, and with his usual liberality to support it with his royal bounty.

William Herschel