“Surely it is a great thing to increase the numerous host of fixed stars previously visible to the unaided vision, adding countless more which have never before been seen, exposing these plainly to the eye in numbers ten times exceeding the old and familiar stars.”

—  Galileo Galilei, book Sidereus Nuncius

Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957)
Sidereus Nuncius (Venice, 1609)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Surely it is a great thing to increase the numerous host of fixed stars previously visible to the unaided vision, addin…" by Galileo Galilei?
Galileo Galilei photo
Galileo Galilei70
Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer 1564–1642

Related quotes

Henry David Thoreau photo

“The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth…these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven's floor.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

January 5, 1856
Journals (1838-1859)

Livy photo

“He was always before men’s eyes; a course of action which, by increasing our familiarity with great men, diminishes our respect for them.”

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Book XXXV, sec. 10
History of Rome

“Which are more full of fate:
The stars; or those sad eyes?
Which are more still and great:
Those brows; or the dark skies?”

Lionel Johnson (1867–1902) English poet

By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross (1895)

Ernest Shackleton photo

“The outstanding feature of today’s march is that we have seen new land to the South never seen by human eyes before great snow clad heights [which] we did not see on our journey South on the last Expedition for we were too close to the land or rather foothills and now at the great distance we are out they can plainly be seen.”

Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) Anglo-Irish polar explorer

Heart of the Antarctic (22 November 1908)

William Gilbert (astronomer) photo

“Only on the superficies of the globes is plainly seen the host of souls and of animate existences, and their great and delightful diversity the Creator taketh pleasure”

William Gilbert (astronomer) book De Magnete

As quoted in Gilbert, William. 2013 ed. De Magnete https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=QsLDAgAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false. Courier Corporation, pp. 311. <br class="br">De Magnete (1600)

“Stars on our door, stars in our eyes, stars exploding in the bits of our brains where the common sense should have been”

Angela Carter book Wise Children

Source: Wise Children

Dante Alighieri photo

“To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind
Upon the other pole, and saw four stars
Ne'er seen before save by the primal people.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto I, lines 22–24 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Marguerite Yourcenar photo

“Overhead shone the great star of the constellation of Lyra, destined to be the polar star for men who will live tens of thousands of years after we have ceased to be.”

Marguerite Yourcenar book Memoirs of Hadrian

Source: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 148

Thomas Carew photo

“Ask me no more, where those stars light,
That downwards fall in dead of night;
For in your eyes they sit, and there
Fixed become, as in their sphere.”

Thomas Carew (1594–1640) English poet

"Song".
Carew's Poems

George S. Patton photo

“Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)
Context: Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star. In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

Related topics