Long ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will, Galileo recanted, but the Earth is moving still.
What evidence is there that Galileo was tortured?
So far as I know, he wasn't, just placed under house arrest. It jumped out at me too; you really have to get these poems exactly right on a factual level or it takes a lot away.
A monthly thread for posting rationality-related quotes you've seen recently (or had stored in your quotesfile for ages).