Where The Senses Fail Us, Reason Must

Surely, God Could Have Caused Birds To Fly With Their Bones Made Of Solid Gold, With Their Veins Full Of Quicksilver, With Their Flesh Heavier Than Lead, And With Their Wings Exceedingly Small. He Did Not, And That Ought To Show Something. It Is Only In Order To Shield Your Ignorance That You Put The Lord At Every Turn To The Refuge Of A Miracle.

I, Galileo, Son Of The Late Vicenzo Galilei, Swear That I Never Said That The Prime Numbers Are Useless. What I Said Was That You Cannot Count Lunar Craters By Counting 2, 3, 5, 7.

In The Long Run My Observations Have Convinced Me That Some Men, Reasoning Preposterously, First Establish Some Conclusion In Their Minds Which, Either Because Of Its Being Their Own Or Because Of Their Having Received It From Some Person Who Has Their Entire Confidence, Impresses Them So Deeply That One Finds It Impossible Ever To Get It Out Of Their Heads.

I Cannot But Be Astonished That Sarsi Should Persist In Trying To Prove By Means Of Witnesses Something That I May See For Myself At Any Time By Means Of Experiment. Witnesses Are Examined In Doutbful Matters Which Are Past And Transient, Not In Those Which Are Actual And Present. A Judge Must Seek By Means Of Witnesses To Determine Whether Peter Injured John Last Night, But Not Whether John Was Injured, Since The Judge Can See That For Himself.

If Experiments Are Performed Thousands Of Times At All Seasons And In Every Place Without Once Producing The Effects Mentioned By Your Philosophers, Poets, And Historians, This Will Mean Nothing And We Must Believe Their Words Rather Than Our Own Eyes?