Galileo Galilei

Father of modern observational astronomy

Early Modern influential 81 sayings

Sayings by Galileo Galilei

I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who gave us our senses, our reason, and our intellect, also intended us to forego their use.

1615 — Slight variation of his quote from Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.
Humorous Confirmed

The senses, though they are sometimes deceived, are not always so.

c. 1600s — Acknowledging limitations but asserting the value of sensory experience.
Humorous Unverifiable

I hold it to be an error to believe that the truths of faith and the truths of science are contradictory.

c. 1600s — Another statement on the harmony of science and religion.
Humorous Unverifiable

The book of nature is a book of a single language, the language of mathematics.

c. 1600s — A concise expression of his belief in the mathematical structure of the universe.
Humorous Unverifiable

There are those who are so afraid of truth that they would rather deny the evidence of their own senses than admit it.

c. 1600s — Critiquing intellectual resistance to new discoveries.
Humorous Unverifiable

The universe is an immense, eternal, and infinite work, which can be understood only by the one who created it.

c. 1600s — A more theological reflection on the grandeur of the universe.
Humorous Unverifiable

To deny one's senses and reason is to deny God's gifts.

c. 1600s — A concise argument for using one's faculties in pursuit of knowledge.
Humorous Unverifiable

The authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual who observes the facts.

c. 1600s — A more complete version of his quote on authority vs. observation.
Humorous Unverifiable