Maria Mitchell famous quotes

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Happiness #Happy #Beauty

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Inspirational #Change #Educational

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Country #Travel #Inspiration

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Soul #Nerves #World

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

#Stars #Space #Trying

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

#Art

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

#Nature #Science #Hymns

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Book #Writing #Exercise

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Travel #Men #Two

We especially need imagination in science. Question everything.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Imagination #Needs

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

#Stars #Eye #Embroidery

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

#Giving #Study #Habit

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Said #Industrious

That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Halloween

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

#Wisdom #Should

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

#Phrases #Absurdity

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?
-- Maria Mitchell

#Women #Overcoming #Path

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Yesterday #Catholic #Church

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Blue #Sky #Cottages

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

#Sacrifice #Ties #Affection

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

#Trying #Littles #Matter

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

#Heart #People #Endurance

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Acceptance #Men #Thinking

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Sex #Vanity #Flattery

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

#Girl #Giving #Closets

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

#Character #Safety #Southern

I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Appreciate #Born #Instance

Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Hiv #Individual #Aids

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

#Soul #World #Broads

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

#Strong #Hands #Growing

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Elements #Saws #Comets

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Mean #Hard Work #Night

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

#Air #Breathing #Wander

I had only ordinary capacity but extraordinary persistency.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Perseverance #Ordinary #Capacity

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Stars #Flower #Autumn

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Brother #Father #Men

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Book #People #Want

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

#Stars #Color #Space

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

#People #Disappoint

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"
-- Maria Mitchell

#Science #Needs #Half

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Circles #Numbers #Spheres

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

#Observation #Universe

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

#Travel #Stars #Acquisition

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

#Stars #Caring #Looks

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.
-- Maria Mitchell

#Boys #Journey #Voyages

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

#Believe #Book #People