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
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 never look upon the mass of girls going into our dining-room or chapel without feeling their nobility, the sovereignty of their pure spirit.
When that door closed and the County Commission door opened, Don encouraged me to take the position,
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
We especially need imagination in science. Question everything.
I am always the better for open-air breathing, and was certainly meant for the wandering life of the Indian.
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.
I had only ordinary capacity but extraordinary persistency.
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.