I knew that even if I were second or third rate, it was astronomy that mattered.

There we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial.

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

Past time is finite, future time is infinite.

The universe is unfolding as it should.

A scientist naturally and inevitably ... mulls over the data and guesses at a solution. He proceeds to testing of the guess by new data-predicting the consequences of the guess and then dispassionately inquiring whether or not the predictions are verified.

The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.