"Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and precision are essential for starting points."
"Irrigation, unscientifically conducted, would not give us such truly wonderful mathematical fitness [as we observe in the Martian canals]. . . . A mind of no mean order would seem to have presided over the system we see-a mind certainly of considerably more comprehensiveness than that which presides over the various department of our own public works."
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Source: Mars and its Canals. Book by Percival Lowell, Preface, 1906.
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More quotes by Percival Lowell
"That Mars is inhabited by beings of some sort or other we may consider as certain as it is uncertain what these beings may be."
"Bright points in the sky or a blow on the head will equally cause one to see stars."
"There are celestial sights more dazzling, spectacles that inspire more awe, but to the thoughtful observer who is privileged to see them well, there is nothing in the sky so profoundly impressive as the canals of Mars. Fine lines and little gossamer filaments only, cobwebbing the face of the Martian disk, but threads to draw one's mind after them across the millions of miles of intervening void."
"Formulae are the anaesthetics of thought, not its stimulants and to make any one think is far better worth while than cramming him with ill-considered, and therefore indigestible, learning."
"Are physical forces alone at work there, or has evolution begotten something more complex, something not akin to what we know on Earth as life? It is in this that lies the peculiar interest of Mars."