73 Quotes by Nicolaus Copernicus

Near the sun is the center of the universe.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.