Nicholas Copernicus Quotes

A collection of quotes by Nicholas Copernicus.

Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) was a Polish astronomer and mathematician. His groundbreaking work in astronomy challenged the prevailing view that the Earth was at the center of the universe. Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model, placing the Sun at the center and suggesting that the planets revolve around it. His seminal work, "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium," published shortly before his death, laid the foundation for modern astronomy and greatly influenced scientific thought. Copernicus' ideas revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos and set the stage for the scientific revolution that followed.

For a long time then, I reflected on this confusion in the astronomical traditions concerning the derivation of the motions of the universe's spheres. I began to be annoyed that the movements of the world machine, created for our sake by the best and most systematic Artisan of all, were not understood with greater certainty by the philosophers, who otherwise examined so precisely the most insignificant trifles of this world. For this reason I undertook the task of rereading the works of all the philosophers which I could obtain to learn whether anyone had ever proposed other motions of the universe's spheres than those expounded by the teachers of astronomy in the schools. And in fact I found in Cicero that Hicetas supposed the earth to move. Later I also discovered in Plutarch that certain others were of this opinion. . . . Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from these sources, I too began to consider the mobility of the earth.

Nicholas Copernicus

Astronomy