Astronomy would not provide me with bread if men did not entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens.

If there is anything that can bind the heavenly mind of man to this dreary exile of our earthly home and can reconcile us with our fate so that one can enjoy living,-then it is verily the enjoyment of the mathematical sciences and astronomy.

Do we ask what profit the little bird hopes for in singing?

My greatest desire is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the external world, in like manner also within and inside myself.

It is a right, yes a duty, to search in cautious manner for the numbers, sizes, and weights, the norms for everything [God] has created. For He himself has let man take part in the knowledge of these things ... For these secrets are not of the kind whose research should be forbidden; rather they are set before our eyes like a mirror so that by examining them we observe to some extent the goodness and wisdom of the Creator.

Geometry is the archetype of the beauty of the world.

...for a long time I wanted to become a theologian... now, however, behold how through my efforts God is being debated in astronomy.