The universe is so immense that it appears immutable, and that the duration of a planet such as that of the earth is only a chapter, less than that, a phrase, less still, only a word of the universe’s history.
Camille FlammarionRead
What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the nature of the blue sky and its obscuring effect on the stars we cannot see during the day.
Camille Flammarion's quote invites us to ponder the beauty and mystery of the blue sky that dominates our daytime experience, while also reminding us of the stars hidden behind it. The statement hints at the idea that there are wonders and truths that exist beyond our immediate perception, encouraging us to look beyond the surface and seek deeper understanding of the universe.
In practice
During a discussion about astronomy, one might use this quote to evoke curiosity about what lies beyond our everyday view.
The universe is so immense that it appears immutable, and that the duration of a planet such as that of the earth is only a chapter, less than that, a phrase, less still, only a word of the universe’s history.
The man who discovers a new scientific truth has previously had to smash to atoms almost everything he had learnt, and arrives at the new truth with hands blood stained from the slaughter of a thousand platitudes.
What I like about sceptics is that in good science you need critics that make you think: 'Crumbs, have I made a mistake here?' If you don't have that continuously, you really are up the creek. The good sceptics have done a good service, but some of the mad ones I think have not done anyone any favours.
If you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.
It is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible.
The existence of these patterns [fractals] challenges us to study forms that Euclid leaves aside as being formless, to investigate the morphology of the amorphous. Mathematicians have disdained this challenge, however, and have increasingly chosen to flee from nature by devising theories unrelated to anything we can see or feel.
Those who say that climate change doesn't exist are being understood as the flat-earthers that they are, as the people who deny the link between smoking and cancer, as the people who denied the link between HIV and AIDS.
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