The Milky Way Is Nothing

If Experiments Are Performed Thousands Of Times At All Seasons And In Every Place Without Once Producing The Effects Mentioned By Your Philosophers, Poets, And Historians, This Will Mean Nothing And We Must Believe Their Words Rather Than Our Own Eyes?

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.

It Has Always Seemed To Me Extreme Presumptuousness On The Part Of Those Who Want To Make Human Ability The Measure Of What Nature Can And Knows How To Do, Since, When One Comes Down To It, There Is Not One Effect In Nature, No Matter How Small, That Even The Most Speculative Minds Can Fully Understand.

The Grand Duke [of Tuscany] ...after Observing The Medicaean Plants Several Times With Me ... Has Now Invited Me To Attach Myself To Him With The Annual Salary Of One Thousand Florins, And With The Title Of Philosopher And Principal Mathematicial To His Highness; Without The Duties Of Office To Perform, But With The Most Complete Leisure; So That I Can Complete My Treatises.

Among The Great Men Who Have Philosophized About [the Action Of The Tides], The One Who Surprised Me Most Is Kepler. He Was A Person Of Independent Genius, [but He] Became Interested In The Action Of The Moon On The Water, And In Other Occult Phenomena, And Similar Childishness.