Two Truths Cannot Contradict One Another.

The Earth, In Fair And Grateful Exchange, Pays Back To The Moon An Illumination Similar To That Which It Receives From Her Throughout Nearly All The Darkest Gloom Of The Night.

Where The Senses Fail Us, Reason Must Step In.

The Grand Duke [of Tuscany] ...after Observing The Medicaean Plants Several Times With Me ... Has Now Invited Me To Attach Myself To Him With The Annual Salary Of One Thousand Florins, And With The Title Of Philosopher And Principal Mathematicial To His Highness; Without The Duties Of Office To Perform, But With The Most Complete Leisure; So That I Can Complete My Treatises.

If Experiments Are Performed Thousands Of Times At All Seasons And In Every Place Without Once Producing The Effects Mentioned By Your Philosophers, Poets, And Historians, This Will Mean Nothing And We Must Believe Their Words Rather Than Our Own Eyes?

It Seems To Me That It Was Well Said By Madama Serenissima, And Insisted On By Your Reverence, That The Holy Scripture Cannot Err, And That The Decrees Therein Contained Are Absolutely True And Inviolable. But I Should Have In Your Place Added That, Though Scripture Cannot Err, Its Expounders And Interpreters Are Liable To Err In Many Ways; And One Error In Particular Would Be Most Grave And Most Frequent, If We Always Stopped Short At The Literal Signification Of The Words.