"I do not design a machine which will give the ignorant in astronomy a just view of the solar system, but would rather…"

"The direct tendency of (Astronomy) is to dilate the heart with universal benevolence, and to enlarge its views."

"See the sage Rittenhonse, with ardent eye, Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky; Clear in his view the circli…"

"'America had not yet produced one good poet.' When we shall have existed as a people as long as the Greeks did before…"

"Before the nineteenth century, writers on education portayed the "improvement of mind" as an activity mainly suited t…"

"The year 1775 opened with a project intended to bring the abilities of Rittenhouse more effectually into the service …"

"It was during the residence of our ingenious philosopher with his father in the country that he made himself master o…"

"Among the books he inherited from his uncle was an English translation of the "Principia" of Newton. Such was the pro…"

"The most noted mathematician and astronomer of early times [in the U.S.] was not a professor in a college, nor had he…"

"His invention, whatever it may have been, was not of sufficient importance to deserve the name of an "invention of fl…"