The universe is unfolding as it should.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive. The body of positive knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.