The deeper I go in considering the vanities of popular reasoning, the lighter and more foolish I find them. What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver, and gold "precious," and earth and soil "base"?
Galileo Galilei (1967). “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, Second Revised Edition”, p.59, Univ of California Press
