Maria Mitchell Quotations

A young sailor boy came to see me today. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation.

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.

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

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 love of one's own sex is precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor retained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere.

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.

I have worn myself thin trying to find out about this comet, and I know very little now in the matter.

That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.

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

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

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

Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I am just through with a summer, and a summer is to me always a trying ordeal.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 made observations for three hours last night, and am almost ill today from fatigue; still I have worked all day, trying to reduce the places, and mean to work hard again tonight.

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

When that door closed and the County Commission door opened, Don encouraged me to take the position,

Even astronomers who are as well cared for as are those of Cambridge have their annoyances, and even men as skilled as they are make blunders.

I made observations for three hours last night, and am almost ill to-day from fatigue; still I have worked all day, trying to reduce the places, and mean to work hard again to-night.

I never look upon the mass of girls going into our dining-room or chapel without feeling their nobility, the sovereignty of their pure spirit.

I had only ordinary capacity but extraordinary persistency.

A young sailor boy came to see me to-day. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation.

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?

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

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.

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

An English village could never be mistaken for an American one: the outline against the sky differs; a thatched cottage makes a very wavy line on the blue above.

Women, more than men, are bound by tradition and authority. What the father, the brother, the doctor, and the minister have said has been received undoubtingly. Until women throw off this reverence for authority they will not develop.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

We especially need imagination in science. Question everything.

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"

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.

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.

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.

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

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