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Nicolaus Copernicus Quotes


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Nicolaus Copernicus
February 19, 1473 - May 24, 1543
Nationality: Polish
Category: Scientist
Subcategory: Polish Scientist

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

   

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

   

We regard it as a certainty that the earth, enclosed between poles, is bounded by a spherical surface.

   

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.

   

Mathematics is written for mathematicians.

   

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.

   

Accordingly, since nothing prevents the earth from moving, I suggest that we should now consider also whether several motions suit it, so that it can be regarded as one of the planets. For, it is not the center of all the revolutions.

   

Therefore, in the course of the work I have followed this plan: I describe in the first book all the positions of the orbits together with the movements which I ascribe to the Earth, in order that this book might contain, as it were, the general scheme of the universe.

   

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.

   

Pouring forth its seas everywhere, then, the ocean envelops the earth and fills its deeper chasms.

   

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.

   

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

   

The earth together with its surrounding waters must in fact have such a shape as its shadow reveals, for it eclipses the moon with the arc of a perfect circle.

   

Near the sun is the center of the universe.

   

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

   

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.

   

Yet if anyone believes that the earth rotates, surely he will hold that its motion is natural, not violent.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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