Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars.
Interpretation
The vastness of space is incomprehensible, emphasizing the smallness of our existence in the universe.
This quote by James Jeans illustrates the immense scale of the universe compared to our earthly experiences. By using the imagery of a cathedral filled with just three grains of sand, he highlights how even the smallest presence can illustrate our insignificance in the grand cosmic space, prompting reflection on the nature of existence and our place within the cosmos.
In practice
In a speech about the vastness of the universe to inspire curiosity in students.
The stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter...we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.
...nature seems very conversant with the rules of pure mathematics, as our own mathematicians have formulated them in their studies, out of their own inner consciousness and without drawing to any appreciable extent on their experience of the outer world.
The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.
...to many it is not knowledge but the quest for knowledge that gives greater interest to thought-to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.
What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?
I hate extremes of any kind. Communism [seeks] the domination of the state over the individual... All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument...
When machines fail, when technology fails, when the conventional religion fails, people have got to have something. Even a zombin lurching through the night can seem pretty cheerful compared to the existential comedy/horror of the ozone layer dissolving under the combined assult of a million flurocarbon spray cans of deoderant." - The Mist
Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.
When two great saints meet, it's a humbling experience.
Apparently Brooklyn needn't always push itself to be something else, something conscious and anxious, something pointed toward Manhattan.... Brooklyn might sometimes also be pleased, as here on Flatbush, to be its grubby, enduring self.
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