Maria Mitchell

“The greatest object in educating is to give a right habit of study.”

“I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music.”

“I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment.”

“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.”

“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.”

“People have to learn sometimes not only how much the heart, but how much the head, can bear.”

“I would as soon put a girl alone into a closet to meditate as give her only the society of her needle.”

“I have just gone over my comet computations again, and it is humiliating to perceive how very little more I know than I did seven years ago when I first did this kind of work.”

“I have worn myself thin trying to find out about this comet, and I know very little now in the matter.”

“As a general rule, people disappoint you as you know them.”

“I am always the better for open-air breathing, and was certainly meant for the wandering life of the Indian.”

“I had, early in life, a love for staging, but it is fast dying out. Nine hours over a rough road are enough to root out the most passionate love of that kind.”

“To read a book, to think it over, and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book which will not repay some hard thought is not worth publishing.”

“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.”

“That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.”

“A young sailor boy came to see me today. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation.”

“We especially need imagination in science.”

“Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.”

“The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to what I was not.”

“The phrase ‘popular science’ has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.”