Maria Mitchell Quotes

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.

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

I had only ordinary capacity but extraordinary persistency.

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

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

We especially need imagination in science. Question everything.

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.

The greatest benefit derived from the study of science is that it lifts you out of and above the littleness of daily trials. We learn to live in the universe as a part of it; we cannot seperate ourselves from it - our every act connects us with it - our every act affects the whole. Standing under the canopy of stars and remembering their presence you could scarcely do a petty deed, or think a wicked thought.

How strange that some people cannot believe in both the Book of Nature and the Book of God.

Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned - not to see what is not.

The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.

In my younger days, when I was painted by the half-educated, loose and inaccurate ways women had, I used to say, "How much women need exact science" But since I have known some workers in science, I have now said, "How much science needs women"

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

A sphere is made up of not one, but an infinite number of circles; women have diverse gifts, and to say that women's sphere is the family circle is a mathematical absurdity.

When we are chafed and fretted by small cares, a look at the stars will show us the littleness of our own interests.

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.

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?

Nothing comes out more clearly in astronomical observations than the immense activity of the universe.

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

For women there are, undoubtedly, great difficulties in the path, but so much the more to overcome. First, no woman should say, "I am but a woman!" But a woman! What more can you ask to be?

There is something of the same pleasure in noticing the hues of the stars that there is in looking at a flower garden in autumn.

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

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.

Yesterday I had a Shaker visitor, and today a Catholic; and the more I see and hear, the less do I care about church doctrines.

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