Quotes by Galileo Galilei

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I'd rather find a single truth, even in trivial things, than to argue about important things for a long time without arriving at any truth.

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Aristotle taught me to satisfy my reason only with what convinces my judgment and not only with the authority of the teacher.

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Anyone can speak confusedly, only a few can speak clearly.

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To destroy the doctrine of Copernicus, it is not enough to shut someone's mouth. All astronomical science must be forbidden, and moreover, anyone must be forbidden to look at the sky!

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Logic is a tool used in philosophy; and as you may be an excellent craftsman in the construction of instruments, unable to make any sound out of them, so you may be a remarkable logician, unable to make proper use of your logic.

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Ignorance is the mother of malice, envy, covetousness, and all such base and vulgar vices, and also of sins.

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Nothing remarkable in the world has been accomplished without passion.

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Truly, just as they lack ears, these people also have their eyes closed to the light of truth... This type of people believe that philosophy is a kind of book, like the Aeneid or the Odyssey, that truth must be sought not in the world, but in comparing texts.

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A companion is only necessary in unknown and wild countries, and in open and smooth places only the blind need a guide. And the blind man will do well to stay at home. He who has eyes and reason must use them as guides. I am not saying that we should not listen to Aristotle, but on the contrary, I commend those who research and study him diligently. But I condemn the tendency to let yourself be influenced by Aristotle so much that you blindly trust everything he says.

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This is the power of truth: you try to reject it, but your very attacks give it even more value.

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Science begins with the death of dogma.

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To require men to lay aside their own judgments and submit to the judgments of others, to appoint persons, wholly ignorant of science or the arts, as judges of scientists, are innovations which may lead to the ruin or destruction of the state.

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It is important to measure everything that can be measured and try to make measurable what is not yet.

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You can't teach a person anything. Just to help him find it within himself.

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The great book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.

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In matters of science, the authority of thousands is no match for the reasoning of one individual.

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And yet the Earth moves!

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The question of the movement of the earth is not a question of faith, but a question of fact.

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Natural philosophy is written in this huge book, which lies eternally open before our eyes, I say, the universe is, but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn to understand its language and know the letters with which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and the punctuation marks are triangles, circles and other geometric shapes, without which it is impossible to understand anything in human language, without them it is as if we were wandering uselessly in a dark labyrinth.

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All truths are easy to understand once they are revealed. The point is to reveal them.

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Philosophy, which is actually the food of the spirit, raises those who can live with it above the common crowd, according to what kind of food it is.

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Logic (...) is the instrument of philosophy.

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Philosophy (...) can only benefit from our explanations, because if what we claim is correct, then it only serves to enrich philosophy, and if it is wrong, then the old teachings will be all the more solid as a result of the refutation.

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If the subject of our debate were some legal matter or some other science that deals with people, in which there is neither truth nor error, then it could certainly be expected and hoped that the one who stands out with the gift of a sharper mind, a more ingenious debater and a greater reading, would be able to assert the superiority of his spirit and may reap glory. But in the field of natural sciences, whose conclusions are true and necessary, where human arbitrariness has no place, we must be careful not to go astray, because a thousand men like Demosthenes or Aristotle can be knocked out of the saddle by a very mediocre mind, if he is lucky enough to he finds the truth.

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Experience and perception are to be preferred over speculation, even if the latter is so well founded.

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I have a little book much shorter than Aristotle's or Ovid's, in which all the sciences are contained, and over which the most perfect overview can be gained with the least effort; and this is the alphabet. There is no doubt that by connecting this or that vowel with this and that consonant, we can get the most reliable solution to all our doubts, we can gain possession of the teachings of all sciences, the rules of all arts; just as the painter just mixes the various colors that are separately on his palette, he takes a little of this and a little of that, and from these he creates people, plants, buildings, birds, fish, in short, he imitates everything visible, even though his palette has no eyes, feathers, rooftops, leaves or stones.

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A guide is needed in unknown, wild countries, in open, flat areas only the blind need support. (...) However, those who have physical and spiritual eyes should choose them as guides!

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There is no more pitiful sight than when, during public debates, even though provable claims are involved, someone suddenly pulls out an old quote, often on some other subject, and silences his opponent with it.

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Poetic souls can be divided into two groups, one of which is capable of inventing clever tales, and the other is capable of willingly believing them.

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Only with the death of dogma does science begin.

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The Bible tells us how to get to heaven, not how heaven works.

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Since two truths can never contradict each other, it is the task of wise interpreters of Scripture to find the interpretation of the text that agrees with the physical conclusions we are already certain of through our sense experiences and the necessary experiments.

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Two truths never contradict each other... Scripture, like nature, originates from the word of God. God manifests himself in the works of nature in just as wonderful a way as in the esteemed sentences of the Holy Scriptures.

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I have never met a person who was so ignorant that I could not learn anything from him.

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When answering scientific questions, one must start from the phenomena of reality and the results of experiments, and not from biblical quotations or theological theorems. By doing so, we do not yet commit sacrilege, since God is just as present in the laws of nature as in the texts of the Holy Scriptures.

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I cannot believe that the God who endowed us with judgment, common sense, and spirit, would have us not use them.

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No matter how different man is from other creatures, it would still be appropriate to say that people are no less different from each other.