We have peered into a new world and have seen that it is more mysterio — Vera Rubin

"Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting."

"There is one alternative to dark matter, and that is the assumption that Newtons laws dont hold over distances as great as galaxies. But we know that Newtons laws hold over a very large domain. And virtually one hundred percent of the physics and astronomy community believes that there is matter in the universe that does not radiate."

"Rubin, in collaboration with Kent Ford, became the key figure in extending rotation curves based on optical-wavelength studies to large galactic radii, where their prevalent flatness dovetailed neatly with results from radio-wavelength observations. Rubin’s life story is one of perseverance in the face of occupational and societal obstacles. ... Rubin’s story illustrates the resistance of the scientific community to altering an established paradigm—that light is the essential gauge of mass in the universe."

"It is well known that I am available twenty-four hours a day to women astronomers."

"Im not a theologian, and I must say honestly that Vatican astronomers views [on astronomy] are entirely in accord with ours. Im not aware of any Church positions that contradict modern science. In my own life, my science and my religion are separate. Im Jewish, and so religion to me is a kind of moral code and a kind of history. I try to do my science in a moral way, and, I believe that, ideally, science should be looked upon as something that helps us understand our role in the universe."

"To my mind, what Vera discovered is both more specific and more profound than the dark matter paradigm it helped to create. What she discovered observationally is that rotation curves are very nearly flat, and continue to be so to indefinitely large radius. Over and over again, for every galaxy in the sky. It is a law of nature for galaxies, akin to Kepler’s laws for planets. Dark matter is an inference, a subsidiary result. It is just one possible interpretation, a subset of amazing and seemingly unlikely possibilities opened up by her discovery."