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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

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

   

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.

   

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

   

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.

   

Therefore I would not have it unknown to Your Holiness, the the only thing which induced me to look for another way of reckoning the movements of the heavenly bodies was that I knew that mathematicians by no means agree in their investigation thereof.

   

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

   

The earth also is spherical, since it presses upon its center from every direction.

   

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

   

In so many and such important ways, then, do the planets bear witness to the earth's mobility.

   

Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth.

   

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

   

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.

   

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

   

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