Of Stars And Men

It is amazing how little we know compared with what we conceive as ultimately within our reach. And how small, probably, is that reachable portion compared with what is beyond.

Superstitions and loyalty to dogmas have kept us bogged down not far above the most primitive views of the universe. Fancy how far we might now have gone if we had not been shackled by mythology and by certain social conventions and national policies.

What intellectual progress we might have made by this time if we had, for example, emphasized psyche rather than property. Eventually we may not be as poorly equipped as now to answer three basic questions:
          What is the universe?
          How does it work?
          Why is the universe?
                                                  -Harlow Shapley