Last night (I wrote this Feb. 8th morning, but decided to delay this post a few days), I had a dream about Galileo, and specifically a quote came up in the dream that noted Galileo’s response to a student asking about the visibility of nature and the invisibility of God. “Galilyus” was actually the name at the bottom of the quote, and my searches ended up in Galileo’s (Galileus’) domain.
Not in recent times do I recall hearkening to Galileo’s name or ideas, nor have I ever known (or inquired) much about him beyond studying his heliocentrism ideas in high school.
I was fascinated, in waking from this early morning dream, to discover such abundant books and ideas from Galileo on God and nature, and though I would love to have time to discover more, I have now lost my energy to pursue this much further. If you can add any rich quotes you find from Galileo on nature, I’d love for you to post them in the comment section. Somehow this dream is a gift to me, or beyond me, and I’d like to discover what is inside the package.
Quotes From Galileo Galilei On Nature:
The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.
The Divine intellect indeed knows infinitely more propositions [than we can ever know]. But with regard to those few which the human intellect does understand, I believe that its knowledge equals the Divine in objective certainty.
I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
Galileus Galilei (Galileo, 1564-1642)
(Italian natural Philosopher, Astronomer and Mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the development of the scientific method and to the sciences of motion, astronomy and strength of materials. 1564-1642)
(for a nice t-shirt, go here). The “But it moves…” quote is apparently (though debateably) what Galileo muttered under his breath when his innovations in scientific thinking met with the Church’s resistance.