Astronomy is the scientific study of the universe and of objects that exist naturally in space, such as the moon, the sun, planets, and stars. Inspirational astronomy quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
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Famous Astronomy Quotes
It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other. – Plato
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. – Stephen Hawking
The thing I like about astronomy is being outside at night and seeing the stars in a dark sky. It makes you feel small. – Jimmy Walker
There are far more galaxies than people. – Carl Sagan
These earthly godfathers of Heaven’s lights, that give a name to every fixed star, have no more profit of their shining nights than those that walk and know not what they are. – William Shakespeare
The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. – Eden Phillpotts
Astronomy is, not without reason, regarded, by mankind, as the sublimest of the natural sciences. Its objects so frequently visible, and therefore familiar, being always remote and inaccessible, do not lose their dignity. – Benjamin Silliman
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The stars, like dust, encircle me In living mists of light; And all of space I seem to see In one vast burst of sight. – Isaac Asimov
Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future. – H. G. Wells
Stars are beautiful, but they must not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. – J.M. Barrie
The Universe, so far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine; its extent, its order, its beauty, its cruelty, makes it alike impressive. – George Santayana
Astronomy has revealed the great truth that the whole universe is bound together by one all-pervading influence. – William Leitch
Telescopes are in some ways like time machines. They reveal galaxies so far away that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. We in astronomy have an advantage in studying the universe, in that we can actually see the past. – Sir Martin Rees
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. – Plato
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle. – Walt Whitman
Astronomy is useful because it raises us above ourselves; it is useful because it is grand. It shows us how small is man’s body, how great his mind, since his intelligence can embrace the whole of this dazzling immensity, where his body is only an obscure point, and enjoy its silent harmony. – Henri Poincare
And astronomy is, in a sense, the very opposite thing. Instead of looking inwards, you are looking out, to things beyond our grasp. – Brian May
The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. – Jacob Bronowski
I do not remember exactly when I became interested in astronomy, but I know it was at a very young age. I did organize an astronomy club for my friends at the age of 11. We would meet once a week to learn about the constellations. – Nancy Roman
Dark matter has a gravitation effect on other objects. You can’t see it, you can’t feel it, but you can watch something being pulled in its direction. – Jodi Picoult
The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. – Edwin Hubble
Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth. – Richard P. Feynman
It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative. – Michael Collins
Astronomy is the science of the harmony of infinite expanse. – John Scott Russell
It is a pity, in an age of rockets and space telescopes, that so few people have a direct acquaintance with the stars. Learning the stars and following their nightly courses across the sky brings a deep satisfaction born of familiarity with something both ancient and ageless. – Richard Berry
A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth. – Christopher Wren
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. – Carl Sagan
Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is. – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. – Carl Sagan
Astronomy is one of the sublimest fields of human investigation. The mind that grasps its facts and principles receives something of the enlargement and grandeur belonging to the science itself. It is a quickener of devotion. – Horace Mann
The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies was made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff. – Carl Sagan
The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. – Harry Emerson Fosdick
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. – Carl Sagan
Most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe every newspaper in the land has a section on astrology, yet few have anything at all on astronomy. – Hannes Alfven
Astronomy is older than physics. In fact, it got physics started by showing the beautiful simplicity of the motion of the stars and planets, the understanding of which was the beginning of physics. But the most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth. – Richard P. Feynman
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. – Carl Sagan
We should do astronomy because it is beautiful and because it is fun. We should do it because people want to know. We want to know our place in the universe and how things happen. – John N. Bahcall
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. – Carl Sagan
