Who Would Dare Assert That We Know

Take Note, Theologians, That In Your Desire To Make Matters Of Faith Out Of Propositions Relating To The Fixity Of Sun And Earth You Run The Risk Of Eventually Having To Condemn As Heretics Those Who Would Declare The Earth To Stand Still And The Sun To Change Position-eventually, I Say, At Such A Time As It Might Be Physically Or Logically Proved That The Earth Moves And The Sun Stands Still.

I Do Not Think It Is Necessary To Believe That The Same God Who Has Given Us Our Senses, Reason, And Intelligence Wished Us To Abandon Their Use, Giving Us By Some Other Means The Information That We Could Gain Through Them.

I Would Beg The Wise And Learned Fathers [of The Church] To Consider With All Diligence The Difference Which Exists Between Matters Of Mere Opinion And Matters Of Demonstration.

It Seems To Me That It Was Well Said By Madama Serenissima, And Insisted On By Your Reverence, That The Holy Scripture Cannot Err, And That The Decrees Therein Contained Are Absolutely True And Inviolable. But I Should Have In Your Place Added That, Though Scripture Cannot Err, Its Expounders And Interpreters Are Liable To Err In Many Ways; And One Error In Particular Would Be Most Grave And Most Frequent, If We Always Stopped Short At The Literal Signification Of The Words.

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.