Discover the force of the skies O Men: once recognised it can be put to use.
Interpretation
Kepler emphasizes the importance of understanding the natural forces at play in the universe for practical application.
In this quote, Johannes Kepler urges humanity to recognize and harness the natural forces, specifically those related to the skies and celestial phenomena. He suggests that once these forces are understood, they can be utilized for various purposes, highlighting the profound connection between knowledge and application in science.
In practice
This quote can be used in a science class to encourage students to explore the forces of nature.
...Those laws are within the grasp of the human mind. God wanted us to recognize them by creating us after his own image so that we could share in his own thoughts... and if piety allow us to say so, our understanding is in this respect of the same kind as the divine, at least as far as we are able to grasp something of it in our mortal life.
A most unfailing experience... of the excitement of sublunary (that is, human) natures by the conjunctions and aspects of the planets has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief.
We find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind that is not possible to obtain in any other way.
I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him.
Eyesight should learn from reason.
I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure, Sky-bound was the mind, earth-bound the body rests. [Kepler's epitaph]
Having walked on the Moon, I know something about what we need to explore, really explore, in space.
The universe has really never made things in ones. The Earth is special and everything else is different? No, weβve got seven other planets. The sun? No, the sun is one of those dots in the night sky. The Milky Way? No, itβs one of a hundred billion galaxies. And the universe - maybe itβs countless other universes.
I believe God did intend, in giving us intelligence, to give us the opportunity to investigate and appreciate the wonders of His creation. He is not threatened by our scientific adventures.
If the tribal peoples actually represented Western origins at a much earlier time, it was exceedingly valuable that they should be studied intensely for clues about the nature and origin of human society. Consequently it was an injury to science and human knowledge to allow the military to simply exterminate them.
When the space shuttle's engines cut off, and you're finally in space, in orbit, weightless... I remember unstrapping from my seat, floating over to the window, and that's when I got my first view of Earth. Just a spectacular view, and a chance to see our planet as a planet.
I remember my friend Johnny von Neumann used to say, 'with four parameters I can fit an elephant and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.