Astronomical quotes
"The time will come when this observatory will allow none to outrank her in the advancement of science. If our large objective proves a success, which we have every reason to believe it will, then this place will stand unsurpassed probably for years and years to come, as having a more powerful instrment with which to inspect the billions of suns that are in the distant firmament, beyond these stars that we see shine out so brightly at night with the naked eye. May not each of them be a distant sun with worlds revolving around it like our own system?
Our sun has worlds swinging around it controlled by the law of attraction. Neptune, the farthest away of our system that is at present known, is at times distant 1,800,000,000 miles from us. Just think of it: Is every star we see a sun like ours with worlds revolving around it?"
--T. E. Fraser, Superintendent, while laying the cornerstone of the Great Refractor dome at Lick Observatory, July 8, 1883