Galileo Galilei Physicist
- Gender: Male
- Citizenship: Grand Duchy of Tuscany
- Born: Feb 15, 1564
- Died: Jan 8, 1642
Galileo Galilei, often known mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the father of modern science".
His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.
Galileo's championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, a time when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax.
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
learning
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered the point is to discover them.
truth
If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics.
education
The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.
religion
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
God & religion
Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.
nature
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
science