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Galileo Galilei

Quote of Galileo Galilei - Philosophy is written in this grand...


Biography - Galileo Galilei:

Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician.
Born: 1564 - Died: 1642
Period:
17th century
16th century
Place of birth: Italy
Italy

Philosophy is written in this grand book, which stands continually open before our eyes (I say the Universe), but can not be understood without first learning to comprehend the language and know the characters as it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometric figures, without which it is impossible to humanly understand a word; without these one is wandering in a dark labyrinth.



Translation

Translation

(German, French, Italian)



German
Die Philosophie steht in diesem großen Buch geschrieben, das unserem Blick ständig offen liegt (ich meine das Universum). Aber das Buch ist nicht zu verstehen, wenn man nicht zuvor die Sprache erlernt und sich mit den Buchstaben vertraut gemacht hat, in denen es geschrieben ist. Es ist in der Sprache der Mathematik geschrieben, und deren Buchstaben sind Kreise, Dreiecke und andere geometrische Figuren, ohne die es dem Menschen unmöglich ist, ein einziges Bild davon zu verstehen; ohne diese irrt man in einem dunklen Labyrinth herum.

French
La philosophie est écrite dans cet immense livre qui se tient toujours ouvert devant nos yeux, je veux dire l’Univers, mais on ne peut le comprendre si l’on ne s’applique d’abord à en comprendre la langue et à connaître les caractères avec lesquels il est écrit. Il est écrit dans la langue mathématique et ses caractères sont des triangles, des cercles et autres figures géométriques, sans le moyen desquels il est humainement impossible d’en comprendre un mot. Sans eux, c’est une errance vaine dans un labyrinthe obscur.

Italian
La filosofia è scritta in questo grandissimo libro che continuamente ci sta aperto innanzi a gli occhi (io dico l'universo), ma non si può intendere se prima non s'impara a intender la lingua, e conoscer i caratteri, ne' quali è scritto. Egli è scritto in lingua matematica, e i caratteri son triangoli, cerchi, ed altre figure geometriche, senza i quali mezi è impossibile a intenderne umanamente parola; senza questi è un aggirarsi vanamente per un oscuro laberinto.




See also 

See also...



To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.

Philosophy only is the true one which reproduces most faithfully the statements of nature, and is written down, as it were, from nature's dictation, so that it is nothing but a copy and a reflection of nature, and adds nothing of its own, but is merely a repetition and echo.




Quotes for: to learn


Quotes

Quotes for: to learn


It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.





What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.





Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.





I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.





The best means of learning to know oneself is seeking to understand others.





When you lose, don't lose the lesson.











Quotes for: nature


Quotes

Quotes about nature:


Painters understand nature and love her and teach us to see.





Truly, art is embedded in nature; he who can extract it, has it.





Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.





Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.





Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.





Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.











Quotes for: philosophy


Quotes

Quotes about philosophy:


Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our mind by means of our language.





To live without philosophizing is properly to have one's eyes closed and never attempt to open them.





There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.






Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.





Poetry is related to philosophy as experience is related to empirical science.





Happiness is the goal of philosophy. Or to be more precise, the goal of philosophy is wisdom, and therefore happiness.











Quotes for: universe


Quotes

Quotes about the Universe:


The universe confounds me! I cannot imagine that such a ‘clock’ can exist without there being a Clockmaker.





The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.





You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are.





Everything mystical is personal — accordingly it is an elementary variation of the universe.





All I did was to look at what the universe showed me.





Nothing is indifferent, nothing is powerless in the universe; an atom can dissolve everything, an atom can save everything











Quotes for: science


Quotes

Quotes about science:


Science without conscience is only ruin of the soul.





The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.





Poetry is related to philosophy as experience is related to empirical science.





Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.





Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.





Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.











Quotes for: book


Quotes

Quotes for: book


The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.





The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.





Few people ask from books what books can give us.





Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.





Thus, reader, I am myself the matter of my book.





Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than the book of humanity?











Quotes

Galileo Galilei also said...


I have never met a man so ignorant that I could not learn something from him.





Doubt is the father of invention.





The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.












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