Nicolaus Copernicus

I have spent almost forty years in the study of the heavens.

The Sun, in the midst of all, presides on his royal throne.

For who would place the lamp of this most beautiful temple in another or better place than whence it can illuminate all things at once?

I have found after a long and painstaking study that the motion of the Earth is not only possible, but also necessary.

To attribute motion to the Earth, and rest to the Sun, is to overturn the whole of astronomy.

The universe is a harmonious system, and its parts are arranged in the most perfect order.

I have been moved to consider a different arrangement of the spheres of the world.

I have preferred to follow the example of the ancients, who sought to explain the phenomena by means of the simplest hypotheses.

The Earth, then, with its surrounding waters, is a sphere, and it is surrounded by the air, and the air by the ether.

I have found that the motions of the planets are more regular and orderly if the Earth is assumed to move.

The universe is a machine, not a living creature.

The Earth revolves around the Sun, and not the Sun around the Earth.

For I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them.

Therefore, when I had long considered this uncertainty of the traditional mathematical demonstrations concerning the ordering of the heavenly bodies, I began to be annoyed that no more accurate explanation of the world machine, set up for us by the best and most orderly Workman of all, existed than what was handed down by those who had gone before us.

For what could be more beautiful than heaven, which contains all beautiful things?

Thus, the Sun, as if seated on a royal throne, governs the family of planets revolving around it.

Hence, I am not ashamed to confess that I have followed the example of the ancients in taking over the idea of arranging the spheres in such a way that the Sun, not the Earth, occupies the center of the universe.

For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions from a careful and skillful study of the observations, and then to set forth the causes of these motions or hypotheses about them, inasmuch as he cannot in any way attain to the true causes.

The motion of the Earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.

For it is manifest that the planets are nearer to the Earth when they are in opposition to the Sun, and farther away when they are in conjunction with it.