Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer who, in 1847, by using a telescope, discovered a comet which as a result became known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet". She won a gold medal prize for her discovery which was presented to her by King Frederick VI of Denmark. On the medal was inscribed "Non Frustra Signorum Obitus Speculamur et Ortus" in Latin. Mitchell was the first American woman to work as a professional astronomer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth1 August 1818
CountryUnited States of America
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.
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 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 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 am just through with a summer, and a summer is to me always a trying ordeal.
When that door closed and the County Commission door opened, Don encouraged me to take the position,
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.
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.
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.
Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
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.
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.