Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath, from Pisa. Galileo has been called the “father of observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, the “father of the scientific method”, and the “father of modern science”. These Galileo Galilei quotes will motivate you.
Best Galileo Galilei Quotes
- “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The laws of nature are written by the hand of God in the language of mathematics.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “You can’t teach anybody anything, only make them realize the answers are already inside them.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“Knowing thyself, that is the greatest wisdom.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “To understand the Universe, you must understand the language in which it’s written, the language of Mathematics.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “To be humane, we must ever be ready to pronounce that wise, ingenious and modest statement ‘I do not know’.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Two truths cannot contradict one another.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“Nonetheless, it moves.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “There are those who reason well, but they are greatly outnumbered by those who reason badly.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The greatest wisdom is to get to know oneself.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judges over experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please? These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin of commonwealths and the subversion of the state.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgment upon anything new.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “You cannot teach a person something he does not already know, you can only bring what he does know to his awareness.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “You may force me to say what you wish; you may revile me for saying what I do. But it moves.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The prohibition of science would be contrary to the Bible, which in hundreds of places teaches us how the greatness and the glory of God shine forth marvelously in all His works, and is to be read above all in the open book of the heavens.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“Nothing occurs contrary to nature except the impossible, and that never occurs.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “In my studies of astronomy and philosophy I hold this opinion about the universe, that the Sun remains fixed in the centre of the circle of heavenly bodies, without changing its place; and the Earth, turning upon itself, moves round the Sun.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the Moon.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Who would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Surely, God could have caused birds to fly with their bones made of solid gold, with their veins full of quicksilver, with their flesh heavier than lead, and with their wings exceedingly small. He did not, and that ought to show something. It is only in order to shield your ignorance that you put the Lord at every turn to the refuge of a miracle.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Science proceeds more by what it has learned to ignore than what it takes into account.” ~ Galileo Galilei quotes
- “The vain presumption of understanding everything can have no other basis than never having understood anything. For anyone who had ever experienced just once the perfect understanding of one single thing, and had truly tasted how knowledge is accomplished, would recognize that of the infinity of other truths he understands nothing.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Mathematics is the key and door to the sciences.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Nature . . . is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her, nor cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operations are understandable to men.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The deeper I go in considering the vanities of popular reasoning, the lighter and more foolish I find them. What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver, and gold “precious,” and earth and soil “base”?” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies 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.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The number of people that can reason well is much smaller than those that can reason badly. If reasoning were like hauling rocks, then several reasoners might be better than one. But reasoning isn’t like hauling rocks, it’s like, it’s like racing, where a single, galloping Barbary steed easily outruns a hundred wagon-pulling horses.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “It seems to me that it was well said by Madama Serenissima, and insisted on by your reverence, that the Holy Scripture cannot err, and that the decrees therein contained are absolutely true and inviolable. But I should have in your place added that, though Scripture cannot err, its expounders and interpreters are liable to err in many ways; and one error in particular would be most grave and most frequent, if we always stopped short at the literal signification of the words.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Holy Scripture could never lie or err…its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “I wish, my dear Kepler, that we could have a good laugh together at the extraordinary stupidity of the mob. What do you think of the foremost philosophers of this University? In spite of my oft-repeated efforts and invitations, they have refused, with the obstinacy of a glutted adder, to look at the planets or the Moon or my glass [telescope].” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Being infinitely amazed, so do I give thanks to God, Who has been pleased to make me the first observer of marvelous things, unrevealed to bygone ages.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “With regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “The Universe is a grand book which cannot be read until one first learns to comprehend the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “In regard to the philosophers, if they be true philosophers, i.e., lovers of truth, they should not be irritated that the earth moves. Rather, if they realize that they have held a false belief, they should thank those have shown them the truth; and if their opinion stands firm that the earth doesn’t move, they will have reason to boast than be angered.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “See now the power of truth.” ~ Galileo Galilei quotes
- “I am inclined to think that the authority of Holy Scripture is intended to convince men of those truths which are necessary for their salvation, which, being far above man’s understanding, can not be made credible by any learning, or any other means than revelation by the Holy Spirit.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “I would beg the wise and learned fathers [of the church] to consider with all diligence the difference which exists between matters of mere opinion and matters of demonstration.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“The Milky Way is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “E pur si muove. “Albeit It does move”. (That’s what Galileo purportedly muttered after torturers forced him to recant his theory that the earth orbits the sun.)” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “Facts which at first seem improbable will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which has hidden them and stand forth in naked and simple beauty.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “But let us remember that we are dealing with infinities and indivisibles both of which transcend our finite understanding, the former on account of their magnitude, the latter because of their smallness.” ~ Galileo Galilei
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“Nature is written in mathematical language.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “[Copernicus] did not ignore the Bible, but he knew very well that if his doctrine were proved, then it could not contradict the Scriptures when they were rightly understood.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “They who depend upon manifest observations will philosophize better than those who persist in opinions repugnant to the senses.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “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.” ~ Galileo Galilei
- “I believe that the intention of Holy Writ was to persuade men of the truths necessary to salvation; such as neither science nor other means could render credible, but only the voice of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Galileo Galilei
