Although all the good arts serve to draw man's mind away from vices and lead it toward better things, this function can be more fully performed by this art, which also provides extraordinary intellectual pleasure.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, 'with both eyes open'.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

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 Quote

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

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

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 Quote

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 Quote

Mathematics is written for mathematicians.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

More stars in the north are seen not to set, while in the south certain stars are no longer seen to rise.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

Moreover, there is no difference between the earth's centers of gravity and magnitude.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

Near the sun is the center of the universe.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

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 Quote

Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

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 Quote

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

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 Quote

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.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

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

Therefore, when I considered this carefully, the contempt which I had to fear because of the novelty and apparent absurdity of my view, nearly induced me to abandon utterly the work I had begun.
- Nicolaus Copernicus Quote

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 Quote

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 Quote

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