For making the sky a home to the minds of humans, with characters and stories. Betelgeuse, Alcor, Deneb, Alpheratz,...

For passing on the wisdom of Indian math, of place-value notation and the incomparable zero-- and adding to it.

For preserving the knowledge of the Greeks through the dark times. Plato, Euclid, the Pythagorean Brotherhood...and adding to it.

For enriching our language-- azimuth, nadir, algebra, algorithm, azure...

We remember.

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Ignoramus et ignorabamus.-- Reymond

Wir mussen wissen. Wir werden wissen.--Hilbert

Pick one.

Ah, yes; the Arab civilisation was for a while the most advanced in the world.
We owe much to it, especially in the field of astronomy.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

And math too...

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Limericks, written by me: http://limericker.blogspot.com