Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.
Interpretation
Galileo emphasizes the importance of quantifying and analyzing what can be measured while also striving to understand that which is not easily quantifiable.
In this quote, Galileo Galilei advocates for a systematic approach to understanding the natural world. He suggests that we should focus on measuring aspects of reality that can be quantified, while also applying creativity and innovative thinking to make sense of those elements that are abstract or difficult to measure. This reflects the core of scientific inquiry, where empirical evidence and observation form the basis of understanding.
In practice
In a presentation on scientific methods, one might quote Galileo to highlight the importance of empirical data.
It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the measure of what nature can and knows how to do, since, when one comes down to it, there is not one effect in nature, no matter how small, that even the most speculative minds can fully understand.
We must say that there are as many squares as there are numbers.
Science proceeds more by what it has learned to ignore than what it takes into account.
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.
Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.
That sculpture is more admirable than painting for the reason that it contains relief and painting does not is completely false. ... Rather, how much more admirable the painting must be considered, if having no relief at all, it appears to have as much as sculpture!
If what the science tells us about climate change is correct, then unabated it will result in catastrophic consequences for our world.
We are concerned that, in a few years time, this place of discovery, with its wealth of human fossils, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world, could be completely destroyed.
I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.
We explore because we are curious, not because we wish to develop grand views of reality or better widgets.
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.
Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature.
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