Perhaps there will be prattlers who, although completely ignorant of mathematics, nevertheless take it upon themselves to pass judgment on mathematical questions, and on account of some passage in Scripture, badly distorted to their purpose, will dare to censure and assail what I have presented here.

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.

Therefore, when I considered this carefully, the contempt which I had to fear because of the novelty and apparent absurdity of my view, nearly induced me to abandon utterly the work I had begun.

The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens.

At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun.

Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place.