Urbain Le Verrier
He predicted the existence and location of Neptune based on perturbations in Uranus's orbit.
Most quoted
"To gaze at the night sky is to confront our own mortality, to realize the brevity of our time against the backdrop of eternity, and yet, to find a strange comfort in that vastness."
— from Observational Diaries
"Death is the ultimate unknown, yet in the grand cosmic scheme, it is but a transition, a return to the elements from which we were forged, to be scattered among the stars."
— from Private Journals
"Direct your telescope to the ecliptic in the constellation of Aquarius, at a longitude of about 326 degrees, and you will find within a degree of that place a new planet."
— from Letter to Johann Galle, 1846
All quotes by Urbain Le Verrier (375)
My greatest discovery was not a planet, but the fact that people will believe anything if you present it with enough equations.
I prefer the company of numbers to the company of people. Numbers are more reliable.
The universe is a grand clock, and I am merely trying to read the time.
Some call it arrogance, I call it confidence in my arithmetic.
The only thing more difficult than finding a new planet is convincing others you've found it.
I have no time for small talk. There are planets to be discovered.
My work is not about looking up, but about looking inward, into the depths of mathematics.
If a problem can be solved with a calculation, it's not a problem, it's an exercise.
They say I am a difficult man. Perhaps the planets are simply easier to deal with.
The universe does not care about your opinions, only your equations.
I am not a magician, I am a scientist. The difference is, I reveal the trick.
My greatest fear is not failure, but the discovery that there are no more planets to find.
Observation is merely the confirmation of what calculation has already revealed.
The only thing I love more than a correct calculation is a challenging one.
I do not believe in luck. I believe in meticulous work and a good set of logarithms.
If you want to understand the universe, do not look through a telescope, look through a textbook.
My mind is a celestial observatory, and my pen is the telescope.
The universe is a puzzle, and I am determined to find all the pieces, even the hidden ones.
Some people chase comets; I chase discrepancies in orbital mechanics.
The only thing more satisfying than being right is proving everyone else wrong.
Contemporaries of Urbain Le Verrier
Other Astronomys born within 50 years of Urbain Le Verrier (1811–1877).