Authors
Galileo Galilei
1564 – 1642
Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer and physicist, born in 1564 — the same year Michelangelo died — who built one of the first powerful telescopes and used it to discover moons orbiting Jupiter. His observations supported the idea that the Earth orbits the Sun, which got him into serious trouble with religious authorities of his time. He is often called the "father of modern science" for insisting that ideas be tested through careful observation.
Quotes
“In the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.”
“I have never met a man so ignorant that I could not learn something from him.”
“After the Moon, I frequently observed other heavenly bodies, both fixed stars and planets, with incredible delight; and, when I saw their very great number, I began to consider about a method by which I might be able to measure their distances apart, and at length I found one.”
“The Earth, with fair and grateful exchange, pays back to the Moon an illumination like that which it receives from the Moon nearly the whole time during the darkest gloom of night.”
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
“If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon.”
“There is, in nature, perhaps nothing older than motion.”