Bk. 3, Ch. 4
Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament (1981)
Context: The immense laughter of Bruno when he understood that Copernicus had inverted the universe — what was it but joy in the confirmation of his knowledge that Mind, in the center of all, contains within it all that it is the center of? … the Universe exploded into infinitude, a circle of which Mind, the center, was everywhere and the circumference nowhere. The trick-mirror of finitude was smashed, Bruno laughed, the starry realms were a jewelled bracelet in the hand.
“…Copernicus was condemned for suggesting that the sun… was the center of our universe… Giordano Bruno was persecuted, and… burned at the stake for arguing that space extended beyond our solar system…. William Harvey was condemned… for suggesting that the heart was the center of the body's circulatory system… Each ultimately was proven to be correct…. Today U. S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) are engaging in persecution of their own, attempting to silence dissenting voices”
on climate change
David A. Ridenour, "Senators Try to Stifle the Global Warming Debate," Chicago Sun Times, November 16, 2006
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Related quotes
1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)
“Burning the witch Giordano Bruno is one more wound inflicted on Christ’s body.”
“Christ,” p. 106
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “Is It Possible to Write a Poem”
Geometry as a Branch of Physics (1949)
Nobel acceptance speech (1986)
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
Orthodoxy (1884)
Context: In 1473 Copernicus was born. In 1543 his great work appeared. In 1616 the system of Copernicus was condemned by the pope, by the infallible Catholic Church, and the church was about as near right upon that subject as upon any other. The system of Copernicus was denounced. And how long do you suppose the church fought that? Let me tell you. It was revoked by Pius VII. in the year of grace 1821. For two hundred and seventy-eight years after the death of Copernicus the church insisted that his system was false, and that the old Bible astronomy was true.
Introduction, p. xxxix
The System of the World (1800)
Some Planetary Perspective http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/06/07/some-planetary-perspective/, wattsupwiththat.com, June 7, 2008.
2008