O telescope, instrument of much knowledge, more precious than any sceptre!
Interpretation
The telescope is a valuable tool for gaining knowledge about the universe, surpassing even symbols of power.
In this quote, Johannes Kepler emphasizes the significance of the telescope as a scientific instrument that allows humanity to explore and understand the cosmos. He suggests that the knowledge gained from observing the heavens through a telescope is far more valuable than any earthly power represented by a sceptre, highlighting the importance of inquiry and discovery in advancing human understanding and insight.
In practice
In a presentation about the history of astronomy, this quote can illustrate the pivotal role of telescopes in expanding our understanding of the universe.
...Those laws are within the grasp of the human mind. God wanted us to recognize them by creating us after his own image so that we could share in his own thoughts... and if piety allow us to say so, our understanding is in this respect of the same kind as the divine, at least as far as we are able to grasp something of it in our mortal life.
A most unfailing experience... of the excitement of sublunary (that is, human) natures by the conjunctions and aspects of the planets has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief.
We find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind that is not possible to obtain in any other way.
I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him.
Eyesight should learn from reason.
I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure, Sky-bound was the mind, earth-bound the body rests. [Kepler's epitaph]
If African farmers can use improved seeds and better practices to grow more crops and get them to market, then millions of families can earn themselves a better living and a better life.
This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right.
There is, however, another subject on which the Queen feels most strongly, and that is this horrible, brutalizing, un-Christian-like vivisection…It must really not be permitted. It is a disgrace to a civilized country.
You have that one basic string, but it can vibrate in many ways. But we're trying to get a lot of particles because experimental physicists have discovered a lot of particles.
We need to look at NASA, not as a handout, but as an investment.
This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection and would be left a fluctuating element.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.