Sir David Gill

“The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.”

“The great problem which astronomy has to solve in the immediate future is the determination of the sun's distance.”

“There are few words in our language which have been more misunderstood, and which have been the cause of more misdirected and fruitless effort, than the word 'accuracy'.”

“We must measure, and go on measuring, and still go on measuring, and when we have got a large catalogue of the most accurate measures that man can make, then we must sit down and discuss them.”

“The first and great object of a national observatory is to carry on, from year to year, and from century to century, a continuous and systematic series of observations of the sun, moon, and planets, and of the brighter or so-called fundamental stars.”