119 Quotes by Johannes Kepler

Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God.

Ships and sails proper for the heavely air should be fashioned.” Johannes Kepler to Galileo 1609.

In what manner does the countenace of the sky at the moment of a man’s birth determine his character? It acts on the person during his life in the manner of the loops which a peasant ties at random around the pumpkins in his field: they do not cause the pumpkin to grow, but they determine its shape. The same applies to the sky: it does not endow man with his habits, history, happiness, children, riches, or a wife, but it moulds his condition...

We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens... The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking for fresh nourishment.

Now, as God the maker play’d he taught the game to Nature whom he created in his image; taught her the selfsame game which he played to her.

The treasures hidden in the heavens are so rich that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.

The harnessing to a rational pursuit of the immense psychic energies derived from an irrational obsession seems to be another secret of genius, at least of genius of a certain type.

If my false figures came near to the facts, this happened merely by chance... These comments are not worth printing. Yet it gives me pleasure to remember how many detours I had to make, along how many walls I had to grope in the darkness of my ignorance until I found the door which lets in the light of truth... In such manner did I dream of the truth.

I believe Divine Providence arranged matters in such a way that what I could not obtain with all my efforts was given to me through chance; I believe all the more that this is so as I have always prayed to God that he should make my plan succeed, if what Copernicus had said was the truth.