“The motion of the stars over our heads is as much an illusion as that of the cows, trees and churches that flash past the windows of our train.”

— James Jeans

Source: The Stars in their Courses (1931), p. 3.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The motion of the stars over our heads is as much an illusion as that of the cows, trees and churches that flash past t…" by James Jeans?

James Jeans 54

British mathematician and astronomer 1877–1946

Red Pine (1943) American author, poet, and translator of poetry

Source: The Diamond Sutra

“The illusion that we understand the past fosters overconfidence in our ability to predict the future.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow

“The past was but the cemetery of our illusions: one simply stubbed one's toes on the gravestones.”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

Source: The Masterpiece

“Our eyes are always flashing sudden flicks of different pictures to our brains, yet none of that saccadic action leads to any sense of change or motion in the world; each thing reposes calmly in its "place!"”

Marvin Minsky (1927–2016) American cognitive scientist

...What makes us such innate Copernicans?
Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

“All of our punishment institutions, including jails, laws, church confessionals, and so forth, are systems of illusion. The order of the universe, the infinite justice of yin and yang, naturally takes care of all motion and compensation. We don't need to invent arbitrary ways to make balance with punishments.”

Michio Kushi (1926–2014) Japanese educator

Source: Spiritual Journey: Michio Kushi's Guide to Endless Self-Realization and Freedom (1994, with Edward Esko), p. 57

“we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Variant: Where we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright. That was where we could go.
Source: A Moveable Feast