Awe Quotes (4)
In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, 'This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed'? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.'
Pale Blue Dot (1994), 50.
Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.
Lecture, Austrian UNESCO Commision (30 Mar 1953), in Atomenergie und Frieden: Lise Meitner und Otto Hahn (1953), 23-4. Trans. Ruth Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics (1996), 375.
See also: | Accept (2) | Admiration (4) | Joy (8) | Objectivity (3) | People (10) | Reality (20) | Science (444) | Teach (10) | Truth (241) | Wonder (16)
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily they are reflected on: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
Critique of Practical Reason (1788). In L. W. Beck (ed. and trans.), Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy (1949), 258.
[W]hen Galileo discovered he could use the tools of mathematics and mechanics to understand the motion of celestial bodies, he felt, in the words of one imminent researcher, that he had learned the language in which God recreated the universe. Today we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God's most devine and sacred gift.
From White House press conference broadcast on the day of the publication of the first draft of the human genome. Quoted in CNN.com, transcript, 'President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair Deliver Remarks on Human Genome Milestone' (26 Jun 2000).
See also: | Beauty (33) | Complexity (18) | Galileo Galilei (55) | Gift (4) | God (121) | Language (38) | Life (155) | Mathematics (221) | Mechanics (16) | Tool (10) | Understanding (94) | Universe (138) | Wonder (16)
