Nature . . . Is Inexorable And

The Earth, In Fair And Grateful Exchange, Pays Back To The Moon An Illumination Similar To That Which It Receives From Her Throughout Nearly All The Darkest Gloom Of The Night.

The Deeper I Go In Considering The Vanities Of Popular Reasoning, The Lighter And More Foolish I Find Them. What Greater Stupidity Can Be Imagined Than That Of Calling Jewels, Silver, And Gold "precious," And Earth And Soil "base"?

E Pur Si Muove. "albeit It Does Move". (that's What Galileo Purportedly Muttered After Torturers Forced Him To Recant His Theory That The Earth Orbits The Sun.)

Facts Which At First Seem Improbable Will, Even On Scant Explanation, Drop The Cloak Which Has Hidden Them And Stand Forth In Naked And Simple Beauty.

Among The Great Men Who Have Philosophized About [the Action Of The Tides], The One Who Surprised Me Most Is Kepler. He Was A Person Of Independent Genius, [but He] Became Interested In The Action Of The Moon On The Water, And In Other Occult Phenomena, And Similar Childishness.