William Herschel - Collected Quotes

"We may strongly suspect that there is not, in strictness of speaking, one fixed star in the heavens, and reasons which I shall adduce will render this so obvious that there can hardly remain a doubt of the general motion of all the starry systems, and, consequently, of the solar one among the rest." (William Herschel, "On the Proper Motion of the Sun and Solar System", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol. 73, 1783)

"If we indulge a fanciful imagination and build worlds of our own, we must not wonder at our going wide from the path of truth and nature; but these will vanish like the Cartesian vortices, that soon gave way when better theories were offered." (William Herschel, "The Construction of the Heavens", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol. LXXV, 1785) 

"The subject of the Construction of the Heavens is of so extensive and important a nature, that we cannot exert too much attention in our endeavors to throw all possible light upon it." (William Herschel, "The Construction of the Heavens", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol. LXXV, 1785) 

"The phenomena of nature, especially those that fall under the inspection of the astronomer, are to be viewed, not only with the usual attention to facts as they occur, but with the eye of reason and experience." (William Herschel, "An Account of Three Volcanoes in the Moon", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol. 67, 1787)

"It is sometimes of great use in natural philosophy to doubt of things that are commonly taken for granted; especially as the means of resolving any doubt, when once it is entertained, are often within our reach." (William Herschel, "Investigation of the Powers the Prismatic Colours to Heat and Illuminate Objects", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol. 90, 1800)

"Familiar objects and events are far from presenting themselves to our senses in that aspect and with those connections under which science requires them to be viewed, and which constitute their rational explanation." (William Herschel, "Outlines of Astronomy", 1849)

"I have looked farther into space than ever human being did before me. I have observed stars of which the light, it can be proved, must take two millions of years to reach this earth!" (William Herschel)

"There are two kinds of happiness or contentment for which we mortals are adapted; the first we experience in thinking and the other in feeling. The first is the purest and most unmixed. Let a man once know what sort of a being he is; how great the being which brought him into existence, how utterly transitory is everything in the material world, and let him realize this without passion in a quiet philosophical temper, and I maintain that then he is happy; as happy indeed as it is possible for him to be." (William Herschel [letter to Jacob Herschel)

"When an object is once discovered by a superior power, an inferior one will suffice to see if afterwards." (William Herschel)