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Looking at the universe as a whole; cosmology, the birth, life and death of the whole universe, we used to have a nice simple model. Then we had to add things like dark energy, and our nice simple picture is getting messier and messier and messier.

— Jocelyn Bell Burnell Beautiful Minds (2010)

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Space

More quotes by Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Sometimes you discover the picture you thought you had, that everybody thought we had, actually turns out to be wrong.

Beautiful Minds (2010)

Nothing is static, nothing is final, everything is held provisionally.

Beautiful Minds (2010)

I have this sense that we need to picture cosmology, the evolution of the universe in a whole new way.

Beautiful Minds (2010)

Scientists should never claim that something is absolutely true. You should never claim perfect, or total, or 100% because you never ever get there.

Beautiful Minds (2010)

Science doesn't always go forwards. It's a bit like doing a Rubik's cube. You sometimes have to make more of a mess with a Rubik's cube before you can get it to go right.

Beautiful Minds (2010)

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Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky.

Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jocelyn Bell Burnell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.