Galileo Galilei Quotes
To be humane, we must ever be ready to pronounce that wise, ingenious and modest statement 'I do not know'.
Galilei, Galileo. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Translated by Stillman Drake, University of California Press, 1953, p. 288.
This proverb was one that was selected by Leo Tolstoy in his 1908 Calendar of Wisdom. It is one of the most rare statements that politicians ever utter.
It is amazing that so few politicians and political appointees when asked questions by constituents, subordinates, or the press can bring themselves to say “I don’t know” when they are ignorant about the issue or have not yet made up their minds. It is as if ignorance was a weakness. When the politicians have to face so many complex issues, the reality is that they do not know about most of them, yet they are loathe to admit ignorance in particular situations.
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath, from Pisa. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science".
