Nicolaus Copernicus quotes

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer and mathematician who formulated the heliocentric model of the solar system. His revolutionary theory placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the universe. He changed the course of scientific thought and paved the way for modern astronomy. Here are 51 of his quotes:

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

Nicolaus Copernicus

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

Nicolaus Copernicus

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

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

Nicolaus Copernicus

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

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

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

Nicolaus Copernicus

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

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

For when a ship is floating calmly along, the sailors see its motion mirrored in everything outside, while on the other hand they suppose that they are stationary, together with everything on board. In the same way, the motion of the earth can unquestionably produce the impression that the entire universe is rotating.

Nicolaus Copernicus

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

What indeed is more beautiful than heaven, which of course contains all things of beauty.

Nicolaus Copernicus

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

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

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

Nicolaus Copernicus

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Nicolaus Copernicus