The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Astronomy reveals the vastness of the universe, emphasizing human insignificance and the structured nature of scientific discovery.
This quote by Georg C. Lichtenberg reflects on the nature of astronomy as a science that fundamentally relies on human understanding and methodical inquiry rather than randomness. It emphasizes that through the study of the cosmos, individuals come to appreciate not only the intricacies of scientific achievements but also their own relative smallness in the grand scheme of the universe.
Themes
AstronomyScienceUnderstandingHumanityCosmos
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about the universe's mysteries, you might say, 'As Georg C. Lichtenberg stated, astronomy shows us how small we are in the grand scale of existence.'
More from Georg C. Lichtenberg
All quotes βMany things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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Medicine is of all the Arts the most noble; but, owing to the ignorance of those who practice it, and of those who, inconsiderately, form a judgment of them, it is at present behind all the arts.
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In some sense, gravity does not exist; what moves the planets and the stars is the distortion of space and time.
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For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
Richard P. FeynmanRead
Supervised learning works so well when you have the right data set, but ultimately unsupervised learning is going to be a really important component in building really intelligent systems - if you look at how humans learn, it's almost entirely unsupervised.
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I can't imagine how many kids around the world will look at pictures of Pluto and think, 'I want to grow up to be a scientist.'
Alan SternRead