So far as hypotheses are concerned, let no one expect anything certain from astronomy, which cannot furnish it, lest he accept as the truth ideas conceived for another purpose, and depart from this study a greater fool than when he entered it.
From Nicolaus Copernicus
Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.
At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun.
For I am not so enamoured of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them.
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.
More stars in the north are seen not to set, while in the south certain stars are no longer seen to rise.
First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical.
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.
Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth.
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.
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