The great spirals... apparently lie outside our stellar system.

At the last dim horizon, we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. The urge is older than history. It is not satisfied and it will not be oppressed.

Past time is finite, future time is infinite.

Wisdom cannot be directly transmitted, and does not readily accumulate through the ages.

With increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundary-the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.

All nature is a vast symbolism: Every material fact has sheathed within it a spiritual truth.

The great spirals, with their enormous radial velocities and insensible proper motions, apparently lie outside our Solar system.