The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.

With increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundary—the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.

Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive. The body of positive knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.

Observations always involve theory.

Wisdom cannot be directly transmitted, and does not readily accumulate through the ages.

Past time is finite, future time is infinite.