Nicolaus Copernicus — "The Sun, as if seated on a royal throne, governs the family of stars which wheel…"

"For it is clear that the earth performs a double motion: one about its axis, and another about the sun."

"For the Earth, which is a planet, must therefore move in a circle around the Sun."

"For the motion of the earth is not a simple motion, but a composite of many motions."

"I am not ignorant that there are some who, having heard that in my treatises on the ordering of the spheres of the universe, I attribute certain motions to the terrestrial globe, will immediately shou…"

"For it is not the magnitude of the stars, but the magnitude of their distance from us, that causes them to appear small."