Galileo on "reason conquering sense" (1632)

Galileo Galilei:

I shall never be able to express strongly enough my admiration for the greatness of mind of these men who conceived this [heliocentric] hypothesis and held it to be true. In violent opposition to the evidence of their own senses and by sheer force of intellect, they preferred what reason told them to that which sense experience plainly showed them … I repeat, there is no limit to my astonishment when I reflect how Aristarchus and Copernicus were able to let reason conquer sense, and in defiance of sense make reason the mistress of their belief.

— Dialogue concerning the two great world systems (1632), translated by Karl Popper and quoted in Popper’s “Science: Problems, Aims, Responsibilities” (1963), The Myth of the Framework, ed. M.A. Notturno, (London: Routdedge, 1994), p. 85.