"Most sciences progress by pursuing nature into the realms of infinitely small, but for astronomy and cosmogony progress lies in the direction of the infinitely great, or, to be more exact, of the unthinkably great." (James Jeans, "Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution" 1926)
"In our recognition that order is universal, a fact confirmed by myriads of observations of patient, indefatigable, and devoted investigators, the old saying that 'an irreverent astronomer is mad' can apply with equal force to the physicist. Man learns something of his own minute and colossal stature, and he comes to feel that his own intelligence, which enables him to make such sublime discoveries, is the supreme achievement of evolution." (Harvey B Lemon, "Atomic Structure", 1927)
"Probably, what characterizes all scientists, whatever they may be, archivists, mathematicians, chemists, astronomists, physicists, is that they do not seek to reach a practical conclusion by their work." (Charles Richet, "The Natural History of a Savant", 1927)
"They [astronomy, mechanics and physics] search for reality beyond the realm of common thought up to unutterable abstractions consisting only of equations of symbols." (Alexis Carrel, "Man, The Unknown", 1935)
"A circle no doubt has a certain appealing simplicity at the first glance, but one look at a healthy ellipse should have convinced even the most mystical of astronomers that that the perfect simplicity of the circle is akin to the vacant smile of complete idiocy. Compared to what an ellipse can tell us, a circle has nothing to say." (Eric T Bell, "The Handmaiden of the Sciences", 1937)
"Our conception of space is, in a fashion similar to that of natural numbers, depending on a constructive grip on all possible places. Let us consider a metallic disk in a plane E. Places on the disk can be marked in concreto by scratching little crosses on the plate. But relatively to two axes of coordinates and a standard length scratched into the plate we can also put ideal marks in the plane outside the disk by giving the numerical values of their two coordinates. Each coordinate varies over the a priori constructed range of real numbers. ln this way astronomy uses our solid earth as a base for plumbing the sidereal spaces." (Hermann Weyl, "The Mathematical Way of Thinking", 1940)
"Microscopical anatomy is like mathematics in books on astronomy or physics - something to be avoided if possible. Yet physiology without cell structure means less than Einstein without calculus." (George W Corner, "The Hormones in Human Reproduction", 1942)
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