Nicolaus Copernicus Quotes

Quotes about:

• Every light has its shadow, and every shadow hath a succeeding morning.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Morning, Light, Shadow

  166 Copy quote

• To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Education, Creativity, Knowledge

  465 Copy quote

• To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than knowledge.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Wisdom, Grateful, Ignorance

  "Poland: The Knight Among Nations". Book by Louis E. Van Norman (p. 290), 1907; later quoted in "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief", book by Francis Collins (pp. 230-231), 2006.

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Thinking, May, Opinion

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

  147 Copy quote
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  Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Sun, Center Of The Universe, Universe

  "The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought". Book by Thomas S. Kuhn, 1957.

  110 Copy quote

• The Universe, wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly Creator.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Creator, Has Beens, Orderly

  "De revolutionibus".

  134 Copy quote

• Nations are not ruined by one act of violence, but gradually and in an almost imperceptible manner by the depreciation of their circulating currency, through its excessive quantity.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Libertarian, Violence, Currency

  112 Copy quote
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  Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Stars, Aquarius, Heaven

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “Nicholas Copernicus on the revolutions”

  153 Copy quote

• Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  May, Obscure, Made

  William Caxton, Jean Calvin, Nicolaus Copernicus, John Knox, Edmund Spenser (1938). “Prefaces and prologues to famous books”

  93 Copy quote

• In the center of all rests the sun. For who would place this lamp of a very beautiful temple in another or better place that this wherefrom it can illuminate everything at the same time? As a matter of fact, not unhappily do some call it the lantern; others, the mind and still others, the pilot of the world. Trismegistus calls it a "visible God"; Sophocles' Electra, "that which gazes upon all things." And so the sun, as if resting on a kingly throne, governs the family of stars which wheel around.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Beautiful, Stars, Mind

  112 Copy quote
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  I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Ideas, Ordinary, Philosopher

  "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres". Book by Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543.

  66 Copy quote

• For what could be more beautiful than the heavens which contain all beautiful things.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Beautiful, Heaven, Beautiful Things

  38 Copy quote

• There may be babblers, wholly ignorant of mathematics, who dare to condemn my hypothesis, upon the authority of some part of the Bible twisted to suit their purpose. I value them not, and scorn their unfounded judgment.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Ignorant, Suits, Purpose

  45 Copy quote

• At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Sun, Middle

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “Nicholas Copernicus on the revolutions”

  50 Copy quote

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Heaven, Doe, Earth

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

  84 Copy quote

• Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the system of procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, "with eyes wide open."

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Eye, Events, Faces

  "The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought". Book by Thomas S. Kuhn, 1957.

  36 Copy quote

• Mathematics is written for mathematicians.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Mathematics, Mathematical, Mathematician

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1939). “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres ...”

  73 Copy quote

• First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Firsts, Notes, Universe

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “Nicholas Copernicus on the revolutions”

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• 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

  Earth, Sun, Remains

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

  59 Copy quote

• Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heavens as its center, would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Moving, Opposites, Heaven

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

  84 Copy quote

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Experts, Study, Astronomers

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

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• 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

  Fear, Views, Novelty

  William Caxton, Jean Calvin, Nicolaus Copernicus, John Knox, Edmund Spenser (1938). “Prefaces and prologues to famous books”

  11 Copy quote

• Among the authorities it is generally agreed that the Earth is at rest in the middle of the universe, and they regard it as inconceivable and even ridiculous to hold the opposite opinion. However, if we consider it more closely the question will be seen to be still unsettled, and so decidedly not to be despised. For every apparent change in respect of position is due to motion of the object observed, or of the observer, or indeed to an unequal change of both.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Science, Opposites, Earth

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1976). “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”, David & Charles Publishers

  83 Copy quote

• 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

  Circles, Mind, Body

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1978). “On the revolutions”

  26 Copy quote

• 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

  Ideas, Purpose, Fool

  Nicolaus Copernicus, Georg Joachim Rhäticus (1971). “Three Copernican treatises: the Commentariolus of Copernicus, the Letter against Werner, the Narratio prima of Rheticus”, Octagon Press, Limited

  30 Copy quote

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