Astronomy is a cold, desert science, with all its pompous figures,-depends a little too much on the glass-grinder, too little on the mind. 'T is of no use to show us more planets and systems. We know already what matter is, and more or less of it does not signify.
Interpretation
Emerson critiques astronomy for its reliance on instruments rather than human understanding.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson expresses his belief that astronomy, despite its grandeur and reliance on advanced tools and calculations, falls short because it does not engage the mind in a meaningful way. He suggests that merely cataloging more celestial bodies does not enhance our understanding of matter or the universe; instead, true knowledge comes from thoughtful contemplation and intellectual engagement with the subjects we study.
In practice
During a lecture on the importance of critical thinking in scientific disciplines, you might quote this to emphasize the need for intellectual engagement.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
The poor are great! The poor are wonderful! The poor are very generous! They give us much more than what we give them.
If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law – if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states – then what is it?… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies – even those who do not subscribe to our views – as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself.
Every time we sit at a table at night or in the morning to enjoy the fruits and grain and vegetables from our good earth, remember that they come from the work of men and women and children who have been exploited for generations.
I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner.
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.
I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.