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

Past time is finite, future time is infinite.

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

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

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

Astronomy is something like the ministry. No one should go into it without a call. I got that unmistakable call, and I know that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered.

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.