Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth. Read Summary
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Read Summary
I was born on January 8, 1942, exactly three hundred years after the death of Galileo. I estimate, however, that about two hundred thousand other babies were also born that day. I don't know whether any of them was later interested in astronomy. Read Summary
The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth. Read Summary
Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like using Beethoven for commercial jingles. Read Summary
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. Read Summary
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. Read Summary
The earth also is spherical, since it presses upon its center from every direction. Read Summary
Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars. Read Summary
Moreover, since the sun remains stationary, whatever appears as a motion of the sun is really due rather to the motion of the earth. Read Summary
Therefore, in the course of the work I have followed this plan: I describe in the first book all the positions of the orbits together with the movements which I ascribe to the Earth, in order that this book might contain, as it were, the general scheme of the universe. Read Summary
I shall now recall to mind that the motion of the heavenly bodies is circular, since the motion appropriate to a sphere is rotation in a circle. Read Summary
Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. Read Summary
At rest, however, in the middle of everything is the sun. Read Summary
The earth together with its surrounding waters must in fact have such a shape as its shadow reveals, for it eclipses the moon with the arc of a perfect circle. Read Summary
For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions through careful and expert study. Read Summary
More stars in the north are seen not to set, while in the south certain stars are no longer seen to rise. Read Summary
For a traveler going from any place toward the north, that pole of the daily rotation gradually climbs higher, while the opposite pole drops down an equal amount. Read Summary
Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from these sources, I too began to consider the mobility of the earth. Read Summary
The first trillionaire in the world will be the person who mines asteroids. Read Summary