“For those [observations] that I made in Leipzig in my youth and up to my 21st year, I usually call childish and of doubtful value. Those that I took later until my 28th year [i.e., until 1574] I call juvenile and fairly serviceable.”

When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes.

From his observations, he concluded that it [Tycho’s supernova] was not some kind of comet or a fiery meteor, whether these be generated beneath the Moon or above the Moon, but that it is a star shining in the firmament itself.

Now it is quite clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens, and those that have been devised by the authors to save the appearances, exist only in the imagination.

That the machine of Heaven is not a hard and impervious body full of various real spheres, as up to now has been believed by most people.

Those who study the stars have God for a teacher.

An astronomer must be cosmopolitan, because ignorant statesmen cannot be expected to value their services

One that has never previously been seen before our time, in any age since the beginning of the world.

The star [Tycho’s supernova] was at first like Venus and Jupiter, giving pleasing effects; but as it then became like Mars, there will next come a period of wars, seditions, captivity and death of princes, and destruction of cities, together with dryness and fiery meteors in the air, pestilence, and venomous snakes.

May I not seem to have lived in vain.

And when statesman or others worry [the scientist] too much, then he should leave with his possessions.

It will be proved that it extends everywhere, most fluid and simple, and nowhere presents obstacles as was formerly held, the circuits of the Planets being wholly free and without the labour and whirling round of any real spheres at all, being divinely governed under a given law.

The body of the Earth, large, sluggish and inapt for motion, is not to be disturbed by movement (especially three movements), any more than the Aetherial Lights [stars] are to be shifted.

There is something eccentric in the orbit of Mars.

Behold, directly overhead, a certain strange star was suddenly seen . . . Amazed, and as if astonished and stupified, I stood still

When, according to habit, I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky, I noticed a new and unusual star, surpassing the other stars in brilliancy . . . .

So mathematical truth prefers simple words since the language of truth is itself simple.

Guilty as hell. Free as a bird. America is a great country.

When we imagine the world a century from now, when we look our great grandchildren in the eye and see them smiling back at us because they know we cared for them, we smile too!

Solar power, wind power, the way forward is to collaborate with nature – it’s the only way we are going to get to the other end of the 21st century.

18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.

My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side.

I feel the 21st century is another new age. Not only can we collaborate again with nature, but we have to. It’s an emergency.

In another couple centuries I’m sure that worldview won’t even exist. There’s no evidence for it.

Christianity had the great religious wars of the 17th century. Islam, fortunately for the Muslims, did not have that. Christianity worked out a system of toleration. Islam was always more tolerant of Christendom.