Therefore I would not have it unknown to Your Holiness, the the only thing which induced me to look for another way of reckoning the movements of the heavenly bodies was that I knew that mathematicians by no means agree in their investigation thereof.
Nicolaus CopernicusMoreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth.
Nicolaus CopernicusFor I am not so enamoured of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them.
Nicolaus CopernicusTo know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
Nicolaus CopernicusThe scorn which I had reason to fear on account of the novelty and unconventionality of my opinion almost induced me to abandon completely the work which I had undertaken. . . . Astronomy is written for astronomers. To them my work too will seem, unless I am mistaken, to make some contribution.
Nicolaus Copernicus