In The Midst Of All

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.

Although All The Good Arts Serve To Draw Man's Mind Away From Vices And Lead It Toward Better Things, This Function Can Be More Fully Performed By This Art, Which Also Provides Extraordinary Intellectual Pleasure.

I Can Easily Conceive, Most Holy Father, That As Soon As Some People Learn That In This Book Which I Have Written Concerning The Revolutions Of The Heavenly Bodies, I Ascribe Certain Motions To The Earth, They Will Cry Out At Once That I And My Theory Should Be Rejected.

Of All Things Visible, The Highest Is The Heaven Of The Fixed Stars.

In First Place We Must Observe That The Universe Is Spherical. This Is Either Because That Figure Is The Most Perfect, As Not Being Articulated, But Whole And Complete In Itself; Or Because It Is The Most Capacious And Therefore Best Suited For That Which Is To Contain And Preserve All Things.