This page contains quotations mainly concerned with space and astronomy but there will be the occasional one, the relevance of which, may not at first glance be appreciated! Included are some of the comments from our RoadShows, these are mainly from the Beavers, the up to six year olds before they become Cubs.

  1. Space is almost infinite. As a matter of fact we think it is infinite. - Dan Quayle. US statesman. The Sunday Times, 31 Dec 1989
  2. Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards. - Fred Hoyle. Astronomer. The Observer, 9 Sept 1979
  3. There are no passengers on spaceship Earth. Everybody's crew! - Marshall McLuhan. Hope, Heart, Health Newsletter.
  4. Space...is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. - Douglas Adams. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  5. If the effort that went into research on the female bosom had gone into our space program, we would now be running hot dog stands on the moon. - Anon.
  6. This planet could be another planets hell! Think about it. - Anon
  7. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
  8. There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for. - Fred Hoyle
  9. Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - Bill Watterson, cartoonist.
  10. Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. - Carl Sagan
  11. The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage! - Anon. Sent in by Lorna McCalman of AS of Edinburgh.
  12. Plasma. Well that's another matter! - Anon.
  13. E = MC2 … Energy = Milk Chocolate Squares. - Read this one somewhere!

The following quotations have been sent in by Ian More.

  1. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde
  2. When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity. - Albert Einstein
  3. [His reply when asked if he agreed that the stars were especially beautiful one night] Well, not bad, but there are decidedly too many of them, and they are not very well arranged. I would have done it differently. - James McNeil Whistler
  4. [On the Ptolemaic system of astronomy] If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon Creation, I should have recommended something simpler. - Alfonso X

Out of the mouths of babes...

From the Beaver RoadShow at Grangemouth

Walter, (after explaining what meteors are), 'so if you watch the sky on Friday night you might see the Leonids'
Beaver, 'What channel are you on?'
From the Beaver RoadShow at Stenhousemuir

Walter, (explaining the difference between Astronomy and astrology), 'How many of you know your birth sign?'
Beaver, 'I've got two!'
Walter, (expressing surprise) 'How have you got two?'
Beaver, 'I've got one on my shoulder and one on my foot.'

Always a favourite, When they see Saturn and its rings through a telescope for the first time 'That's cool'