Percival Lowell

1855–1916 · American astronomer

Topics: learning, simplicity

• Are physical forces alone at work there, or has evolution begotten something more complex, something not unakin to what we know on Earth as life?

  — Percival Lowell

• Formulae are the anaesthetics of thought, not its stimulants and to make any one think is far better worth while than cramming him with ill-considered, and therefore indigestible, learning.

  — Percival Lowell

• The whole object of science is to synthesize, and so simplify; and did we but know the uttermost of a subject we could make it singularly clear.

  — Percival Lowell