Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, since things come first and names afterwards.
Interpretation
Names should reflect the true nature of things, not the other way around.
This quote by Galileo emphasizes the importance of understanding the true essence of objects and concepts before assigning names or labels to them. It argues that names are merely human constructs and should be aligned with the intrinsic qualities of the entities they represent, rather than shaping those entities to fit our linguistic frameworks.
In practice
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of reality.
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!
As long as there are those who are willing to shed blood and take innocent life in the name of religion, the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace.
An honorable Peace is and always was my first wish! I can take no delight in the effusion of human Blood; but, if this War should continue, I wish to have the most active part in it.
Your pretty empire took so long to build, now, with a snap of history's fingers, down it goes.
What is born will die, What has been gathered will be dispersed, What has been accumulated will be exhausted, What has been built up will collapse, And what has been high will be brought low.
We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.
We must learn to die, and to die in the fullest sense of the word. The fear of the end is the source of all lovelessness
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