Nicolaus Copernicus Quotes

• 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

  Topics in Wisdom

  Tags in True, Know

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Motions, Body

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Anyone, Believe

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Long, Advisor

• 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 there of.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Unknown, Look

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Mobility, Many

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in May, Place

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Deeper, Ocean

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Motion, Since

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Moreover, Since

• 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.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Earth, Remains

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Spherical, Universe

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Reveals, Shape

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in North, Stars

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Presses, Earth

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Center, Sun

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Middle, Sun

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Eminent, Give

• Mathematics is written for mathematicians.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Written, Mathematician

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

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Tags in Insignificance, Shrink

Nicolaus Copernicus (31)

Birth:	19th February, 1473
Death:	24th May, 1543
Nationality:	Polish
Profession:	Artist, Astronomer, Economist, Mathematician, Physician

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