Galileo’s impression
“Galileo’s impression was that the dark, flat areas on the moon were seas, real watery oceans, and that the bright and rougher regions densely studded with craters were continents. These maria (Latin for “seas”) were named primarily after states of mind or conditions of nature: Mare Frigoris (the Sea of Cold), Lacus Somniorum (the Lake of Dreams), Mare Crisium (the Sea of Crises), Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows), Mare Serenitatis (the Sea of Serenity), Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms), Mare Nubium (the Sea of Clouds), Mare Fecunditatis (the Sea of Fertility), Sinus Aestuum (the Bay of Billows), Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains) and Mare Tranquillitatis (the Sea of Tranqullity). . . .”
—Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain, 1979.
of gold and diamonds
“However dangerous . . . the shock of a comet, it might . . . only do damage at the part of the Earth where it actually struck. . . . Perhaps we should be very surprised to find that the debris of these masses that we despised were formed of gold and diamonds; but who would be the most astonished, we, or the comet-dwellers, who would be cast on our Earth? What strange beings each would find the other!”
—Maupertuis, Lettre sur la com’te, 1752. Quoted by Carl Sagan in Broca’s Brain, 1979.
the Black Stone
“[T]he Kaaba has been carefully preserved, although there seems never to have been a true scientific examination of it. There are some who believe it to be a dark, stony rather than metallic meteorite. Recently two geologists have suggested, on admittedly quite fragmentary evidence, that it is instead an agate. Some Muslim writers believe that the colour of the Kaaba was originally white, not black, and that the present colour is due to its repeated handling. The official view of the Keeper of the Black Stone is that it was placed in its present position by the patriarch Abraham and fell from a religious rather than an astronomical heaven. . . .”
—Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain, 1979.
the highest circle of spiralling powers
“We have seen the highest circle of spiralling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.”
—Nikos Kazantzakis, 1948. Quoted by Carl Sagan in Broca’s Brain, 1979.
creeping murmur and the poring dark
“Now entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.”
—William Shakespeare, Henry V. Quoted by Carl Sagan in Broca’s Brain, 1979.
Chico
“They came on the lot and were assigned offices, and we had a few amusing phone calls from them. Chico called shortly after they moved in and said they had found some black widow spiders in the office and ‘somebody better send over some flies before they start eating us Jews.’”
—Goldie Arthur, Irving Thalberg’s personal secretary, quoted in Hello, I Must be Going: Groucho and His Friends, by Charlotte Chandler, 1978.
A certain look
“I: What do you think was the secret of Chico’s great charm for women?
GROUCHO: A certain look in his eyes.”
—from Hello, I Must be Going: Groucho and His Friends, by Charlotte Chandler, 1978.
black jellybeans
“GEORGE BURNS: Going into the Pantages Theatre, there’s Gracie and Susan, and Harpo and myself. And he loved black jellybeans. He couldn’t get any black jellybeans, and all of a sudden there’s a little candy store next to the theatre. It’s during the war. All of a sudden he sees this candy store, and in the window there’s black jellybeans. He went in and he says, ‘How many black jellybeans have you got?’ The guy says, ‘Well, I got an order today, I paid thirty dollars for the black jellybeans.’ Harpo says, ‘I’ll give you thirty-five dollars for all the black jellybeans.’ Have you any idea how many jellybeans you can buy for thirty-five dollars?
Well, Gracie carried a bag of jellybeans, and Susan carried a bag, ‘cause we’re going into the theatre, and the little candy store would be closed when we left. And we couldn’t walk down to where the car was or we’d have missed the beginning of the picture. So the four of us are carrying about twenty-five pounds of black jellybeans into the theatre. But . . . before we went out, he also bought some colored jellybeans—ten cents worth of white, red, and pink jellybeans. That is, if we wanted a jellybean, he’d give us the colored ones because he didn’t want anyone to touch the black ones!
GROUCHO: I don’t blame him.”
—from Hello, I Must be Going: Groucho and His Friends, by Charlotte Chandler, 1978.
no talent at all
“I don’t have any tricks. I have no talent at all. I can barely open a window.”
—Groucho Marx, as quoted in Hello, I Must be Going: Groucho and His Friends, by Charlotte Chandler, 1978.
the sky
“Some fishermen catching fish with trembling rod, or some shepherd leaning on his staff, or a plowman resting upon his plow handle saw them and was astonished; and, because they could make their way through the air, he thought they were gods.
Soon the island of Samos, sacred to Juno, was on their left, both Delos and Paros had been left behind, Lebinthos was on their right, and Calymne, rich in honey, had been passed, when suddenly the boy began to rejoice in the bold flight. He deserted his leader and, carried away by an eagerness for the sky, set his course higher.
The nearness of the destructive sun softened the fragrant wax—the fastening of the feathers—and the wax melted off. He shook his bare arms and, because he lacked wings, could not make use of the air. And his lips, crying out his father’s name, were swallowed up in the dark blue water that gets its name, Icarian Sea, from him.”
—Ovid, Metamorphoses. Icarus and Daedalus, of course. From Classical Gods and Heroes, translated and edited by Rhoda A. Hendricks, 1974.