Galileo Galilei

Scientist

1564-02-15 – 1642-01-08

Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist whose work advanced physics, astronomy, and scientific method. His telescopic observations supported heliocentrism and transformed early modern astronomy.

Books by Galileo Galilei

Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche
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Sidereus nuncius
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Discoveries and opinions of Galileo
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Quotes by Galileo Galilei

It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the Moon.
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(T)he increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts.
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Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes -- I mean the universe -- but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.
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Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured.
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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.
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I have been in my bed for five weeks, oppressed with weakness and other infirmities from which my age, seventy four years, permits me not to hope release. Added to this (proh dolor! [O misery!]) the sight of my right eye — that eye whose labors (dare I say it) have had such glorious results — is for ever lost. That of the left, which was and is imperfect, is rendered null by continual weeping.
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Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
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By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.
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You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.
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See now the power of truth; the same experiment which at first glance seemed to show one thing, when more carefully examined, assures us of the contrary.
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By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.
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I have been in my bed for five weeks, oppressed with weakness and other infirmities from which my age, seventy four years, permits me not to hope release. Added to this (proh dolor! [O misery!]) the sight of my right eye — that eye whose labors (dare I say it) have had such glorious results — is for ever lost. That of the left, which was and is imperfect, is rendered null by continual weeping.
Read quote
Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes -- I mean the universe -- but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.
Read quote
See now the power of truth; the same experiment which at first glance seemed to show one thing, when more carefully examined, assures us of the contrary.
Read quote
It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the Moon.
Read quote
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.
Read quote
Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured.
Read quote
(T)he increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts.
Read quote
You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.
Read quote
Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
Read quote