Galileo Galilei Quotes

Galileo Galilei on Death

• “It seems to me that it was well said by Madama Serenissima, and insisted on by your reverence, that the Holy Scripture cannot err, and that the decrees therein contained are absolutely true and inviolable. But I should have in your place added that, though Scripture cannot err, its expounders and interpreters are liable to err in many ways ; and one error in particular would be most grave and most frequent, if we always stopped short at the literal signification of the words.”

  Wikiquote

Galileo Galilei on God

• “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

  Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina

• “To this end they make a shield of their hypocritical zeal for religion. They go about invoking the Bible, which they would have minister to their deceitful purposes. Contrary to the sense of the Bible and the intention of the holy Fathers, if I am not mistaken, they would extend such authorities until even in purely physical matters — where faith is not involved — they would have us altogether abandon reason and the evidence of our senses in favor of some biblical passage, though under the surface meaning of its words this passage may contain a different sense.”

  Wikiquote

• “Copernicus never discusses matters of religion or faith , nor does he use argument that depend in any way upon the authority of sacred writings which he might have interpreted erroneously. ... He did not ignore the Bible, but he knew very well that if his doctrine were proved, then it could not contradict the Scriptures when they were rightly understood.”

  Wikiquote

Read all Galileo Galilei quotes on God

Galileo Galilei on Knowledge

• “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”

  sì perché l'autorità dell'opinione di mille nelle scienze non val per una scintilla di ragione di un solo, sì perché le presenti osservazioni spogliano d'autorità i decreti de' passati scrittori, i quali se vedute l'avessero, avrebbono diversamente determinato.

• “Quòd tertio loca à nobis fuit obſeruatum, eſt ipſiuſmet LACTEI Circuli eſſentia, ſeu materies, quam Perſpicilli beneficio adeò ad ſenſum licet intueri, vt & altercationes omnes, quæ per tot ſæcula Philoſophos excrucia runt ab oculata certitudine dirimantur, nosque à verboſis dſputationibus liberemur.”

  What was observed by us in the third place is the nature or matter of the Milky Way itself, which, with the aid of the spyglass, may be observed so well that all the disputes that for so many generations have vexed philosophers are destroyed by visible certainty , and we are liberated from wordy arguments . Original text as reproduced in Edward Tufte, Beautiful Evidence (Cheshire, Connecticut: Gra

• “Revealing great, unusual, and remarkable spectacles, opening these to the consideration of every man, and especially of philosophers and astronomers ; as observed by Galileo Galilei, Gentleman of Florence , Professor of Mathematics in the University of Padua , with the aid of a spyglass lately invented by him, in the surface of the Moon , in innumerable fixed stars , in nebulae, and above all in four planets swiftly revolving about Jupiter at differing distances and periods, and known to no one before the author recently perceived them and decided they should be named the Medicean Stars”

  Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957)

• “Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957)”

  Revealing great, unusual, and remarkable spectacles, opening these to the consideration of every man, and especially of philosophers and astronomers ; as observed by Galileo Galilei, Gentleman of Florence , Professor of Mathematics in the University of Padua , with the aid of a spyglass lately invented by him, in the surface of the Moon , in innumerable fixed stars , in nebulae, and above all in f

• “Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957)”

  About ten months ago a report reached my ears that a certain Fleming had constructed a spyglass by means of which visible objects, though very distant from the eye of the observer, were distinctly seen as if nearby. Of the truly remarkable effect several experiences were related, to which some persons gave credence while others denied them. A few days later a report was confirmed to me in a letter

• “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.”

  Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957)

• “Translation by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957)”

  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.

Read all Galileo Galilei quotes on Knowledge

Galileo Galilei on Nature

• Attributed to Galileo Galilei:

  “Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics.”

• Attributed to Galileo Galilei:

  “Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.”

• “Variant translation: I hold that the Sun is located at the centre of the revolutions of the heavenly orbs and does not change place, and that the Earth rotates on itself and moves around it. Moreover … I confirm this view not only by refuting Ptolemy's and Aristotle's arguments, but also by producing many for the other side, especially some pertaining to physical effects whose causes perhaps cannot be determined in any other way, and other astronomical discoveries; these discoveries clearly confute the Ptolemaic system, and they agree admirably with this other position and confirm it.”

  Persisting in their original resolve to destroy me and everything mine by any means they can think of, these men are aware of my views in astronomy and philosophy. They know that as to the arrangement of the parts of the universe , I hold the sun to be situated motionless in the center of the revolution of the celestial orbs while the earth revolves about the sun. They know also that I support thi

Read all Galileo Galilei quotes on Nature

Galileo Galilei on Truth

• Attributed to Galileo Galilei:

  “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

• Attributed to Galileo Galilei:

  “And yet it moves.”

Read all Galileo Galilei quotes on Truth