"All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe. The theory of the "expanding universe" might also be called the theory of the "shrinking atom". ...[T]ake the... universe as our standard of constancy... he sees us shrinking... only the intergalactic spaces remain the same. The earth spirals round the sun in an ever‑decreasing orbit. ...Our years will ...decrease in geometrical progression in the cosmic scale of time. ... Owing to the property of geometrical progressions an infinite number of our years will add up to a finite cosmic time; so that what we should call the end of eternity is an ordinary finite date in the cosmic calendar. But on that date the universe has expanded to infinity in our reckoning, and we have shrunk to nothing in the reckoning of the cosmic being. ...When the last act opens the curtain rises on midget actors rushing through their parts at frantic speed. Smaller and smaller. Faster and faster. One last microscopic blurr of intense agitation. And then nothing."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Expansion_of_the_universe
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Expansion of the universe
68 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Expansion of the universe →
Related Quotes
"As for Hubble’s brightest star criterion, Sandage... has shown that objects in the of galaxies which Hubble believed …"
"An important new survey of the law relating red-shifts and magnitudes published in 1956 by Humason, Mayall and Sandag…"
"[I]n... 1952, Baade... announced that Hubble’s entire distance scale was in error... According to Baade, the distance…"
"At last, in 1949, the... ... was ready... Humason... succeeded in photographing the spectra of two remote galaxies in…"
"If a distant galaxy is moving relative to us, its entire is Doppler-shifted in frequency. Its s are displaced relativ…"
"All kinds of questions remain. Many have to do with cosmology. How did the universe originate? How did the galaxies b…"
"A book, too, can be a star, explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly, a living fire to lighten…"
"Red-shifts are produced either in the nebulae, where the light originates, or in the intervening space through which …"
"All of this picture of the expansion is exciting, pleasant, coherent, well in order. But what if the s are not to be …"
"This circumstance of an expanding universe is irritating. ...To admit such possibilities seems senseless to me."