Nicolaus Copernicus Quotes

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Not a few other very eminent and scholarly men made the same request, urging that I should no longer through fear refuse to give out my work for the common benefit of students of Mathematics.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Hence I feel no shame in asserting that this whole region engirdled by the moon, and the center of the earth, traverse this grand circle amid the rest of the planets in an annual revolution around the sun. Near the sun is the center of the universe. Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from these sources, I too began to consider the mobility of the earth.

Nicolaus Copernicus
I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be rejected.

Nicolaus Copernicus
I shall now recall to mind that the motion of the heavenly bodies is circular, since the motion appropriate to a sphere is rotation in a circle.

Nicolaus Copernicus
At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun. For, in this most beautiful temple, who would place this lamp in another or better position than that from which it can light up the whole thing at the same time?

Nicolaus Copernicus
More stars in the north are seen not to set, while in the south certain stars are no longer seen to rise.

Nicolaus Copernicus
So, influenced by these advisors and this hope, I have at length allowed my friends to publish the work, as they had long besought me to do.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Mathematics is written for mathematicians...

Nicolaus Copernicus
So far as hypotheses are concerned, let no one expect anything certain from astronomy, which cannot furnish it, lest he accept as the truth ideas conceived for another purpose, and depart from this study a greater fool than when he entered it.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Although all the good arts serve to draw man's mind away from vices and lead it toward better things, this function can be more fully performed by this art, which also provides extraordinary intellectual pleasure.

Nicolaus Copernicus
The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens.

Nicolaus Copernicus
The heavens are immense in comparison with the Earth.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Therefore, when I considered this carefully, the contempt which I had to fear because of the novelty and apparent absurdity of my view, nearly induced me to abandon utterly the work I had begun.

Nicolaus Copernicus
There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.

Nicolaus Copernicus
We are taught all this [the motion of the earth on its axis and around the sun] by the order of succession, in which those phenomena (various planetary happenings) follow each other, and by the harmony of the world, if we will only, as the saying goes, look at the matter with both eyes.

Nicolaus Copernicus
For a traveler going from any place toward the north, that pole of the daily rotation gradually climbs higher, while the opposite pole drops down an equal amount.

Nicolaus Copernicus
The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.

Nicolaus Copernicus
For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions through careful and expert study.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Thus indeed, as though seated on a royal throne, the sun governs the family of planets revolving around it.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Yet the widespread planetary theories, advanced by Ptolemy and most other astronomers, although consistent with the numerical data, seemed likewise to present no small difficulty. For these theories were not adequate unless they also conceived certain equalizing circles, which made the planet appear to move at all times with uniform velocity neither on its deferent sphere nor about its own epicycle's center.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

Nicolaus Copernicus
I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them. I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God. Yet I hold that completely erroneous views should be shunned.

Nicolaus Copernicus
What appears to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.

Nicolaus Copernicus
For I am not so enamoured of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them.

Nicolaus Copernicus