Richard Panek

Richard Panek (born 1959) is an American popular science writer, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of space, the universe, and gravity.

Quotes

Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens (1998)

All quotes from the hardcover first edition, published by Viking, ISBN 0-670-87628-3

• It is indeed like that, how often we are held by prejudice, so that we either do not admit what is before our eyes or bow as much as possible to a preconceived opinion because of the perverse wont of human nature. Nor do I except myself from that weakness.
  • Chapter 3, “By the Numbers” (p. 68)

• Whatever gravity was, it must work, because he (Galileo) had the math to prove it.
  • Chapter 4, “Profundity” (p. 102)

• Once, when his wife suggested that he attend church on Sunday for the sake of the children, Hale answered, “My creed is truth, wherever it may lead, and I believe that no creed is finer than this (the 100-inch telescope).”
  • Chapter 5, “More Light” (p. 146)

• The universe is a work in progress.
  • Chapter 6, “More Dark” (p. 162)