Maria Mitchell Quotes

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.

I hope he really cried, for a weakness is better than an affectation of weakness. He said, "The unbeliever is already condemned." It seems to me that if anything would make me an infidel, it would be the threats lavished against unbelief.

The eye that directs a needle in the delicate meshes of embroidery will equally well bisect a star with the spiderweb of the micrometer.

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

I saw, in looking over Cooper, elements of a comet of 1825 which resemble what I get out for this, from my own observations, but I cannot rely upon my own.

The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry.

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

Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses.

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.

Altogether, St. Louis is a growing place, and the West has a large hand and a strong grasp.

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

It is sad to see a woman sacrificing the ties of the affections even to do good.

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

Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God.

A traveller, lost on a desert plain, feels that the recognition of one star, the Pole star, is of itself a great acquisition.

The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power!

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.

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.

Why can a man not act himself, be himself, and think for himself? It seems to me that naturalness alone is power; that a borrowed word is weaker than our own weakness, however small we may be.

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

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

I had only ordinary capacity but extraordinary persistency.

Truth or myth, it is only for me to know. Come with me into the rich texture of Bizco's kingdom.

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

I was a little doubtful about the propriety of going to the Mammoth Cave without a gentleman escort, but if two ladies travel alone they must have the courage of men.

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.

Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.

The phrase 'popular science' has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.

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.

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

But why look back at all? Why turn your eyes to your shadow, when, by looking upward, you see your rainbow in the same direction?

Let us secure not such books as people want, but books just above their wants, and they will reach up to take what is put out for them.

No woman should say, "I am but a woman!" But a woman! What more can you ask to be?