"Nothong is more simple than the plan of the Solar System: we have only to conceive the Sun in one of the focuses of the eliptic orbits, Which the planets and comets describe around him. We will bestow our chief attention on comets, as on them will depend all the merit of novelty to be found in the following theory." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"Surrounded as we are by an infinite variety of phenomena, which continually succeed each other in the heavens and on the earth, philosophers have succeeded in recognizing the small number of general laws to which matter is subject in its motions. To them, all nature is obedient; and everything is as necessarily derived from them, as the return of the seasons; so that the curve which is described by the lightest atom that seems to be driven at random by the winds, is regulated by laws as certain as those which confine the planets to their orbits." (Pierre-Simon Laplace, "System of the World" Vol. 1, 1809)
"The perturbations which the motions of planets suffer from the influence other planets, are so small and so slow that they only become sensible after a long interval of time; within a shorter time, or even within one or several revolutions, according to circumstances, the motion would differ so little from motion exactly described, according to the laws of Kepler, in a perfect ellipse, that observations cannot show the difference. As long as this is true, it not be worth while to undertake prematurely the computation of the perturbations, but it will be sufficient to adapt to the observations what we may call an osculating conic section: but, afterwards, when the planet has been observed for a longer time, the effect of the perturbations will show itself in such a manner, that it will no longer be possible to satisfy exactly all the observations by a purely elliptic motion; then, accordingly, a complete and permanent agreement cannot be obtained, unless the perturbations are properly connected with the elliptic motion." (Carl F Gauss, "Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientium", 1809)
"The chemical compounds are comparable to a system of planets in that the atoms are held together by chemical affinity. They may be more or less numerous, simple or complex in composition, and in the constitution of the materials, they play the same role as Mars and Venus do in our planetary system, or the compound members such as our earth with its moon, or Jupiter with its satellites. [...] If in such a system a particle is replaced by one of different character, the equilibrium can persist, and then the new compound will exhibit properties similar to those shown by the original substance." (Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas, "Mémoire sur la loi des substitutions et la théorie des types" [*Memoir on the Law of Substitutions and the Theory of Types"], 1810)
"Physical astronomy is the science which compares and identifies the laws of motion observed on earth with the motions that take place in the heavens; and which traces, by an uninterrupted chain of deduction from the great principle that governs the universe, the revolutions and rotations of the planets, and the oscillations of the fluids at their surfaces; and which estimates the changes the system has hitherto undergone, or may hereafter experience - changes which require millions of years for their accomplishment." (Mary Somerville, "The Connection of the Physical Sciences", 1834)
"We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act […] Our faculties are more fitted to recognize the wonderful structure of a beetle than a Universe." (Charles Darwin, "Notebook N", 1838)
"If proof were wanted of the inexhaustible fertility of astronomical science in points of novelty and interest, it would suffice to adduce the addition to the list of members of our system of no less than eight new planets and satellites during the preparation of these sheets for the press." (John F W Herschel,"Outlines of Astronomy", 1849)
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