Maria Mitchell was an astronomer and educator who also was involved in working for women's rights and against slavery.
Selected Maria Mitchell Quotations
• The eye that directs a needle in the delicate meshes of embroidery will equally well bisect a star with the spider web of the micrometer.
• We especially need imagination in science. Question everything.
• Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
• We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us; and the more we gain, the more is our desire. The more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.
• The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! we reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.
• Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned -- not to see what is not.
• We travel to learn; and I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own.
• Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.
• We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry.
• The phrase "popular science" has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.
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Selected Quotations
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About These Quotes
Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection © Jone Johnson Lewis 1997-2009. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote.
Citation information:
Jone Johnson Lewis. "Maria Mitchell Quotes." About Women's History. URL: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/maria_mitchell.htm . Date accessed: (today). (More on how to cite online sources including this page)
