Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Keplerwas a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his laws of planetary motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. These works also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth27 December 1571
CountryGermany
sky mind shadow
I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure, Sky-bound was the mind, earth-bound the body rests. [Kepler's epitaph]
body earth lines
If the earth were not round, heavy bodies would not tend from every side in a straight line towards the center of the earth, but to different points from different sides.
creating humanity mind
Since geometry is co-eternal with the divine mind before the birth of things, God himself served as his own model in creating the world (for what is there in God which is not God?), and he with his own image reached down to humanity.
experiments
Without proper experiments I conclude nothing.
long effort astronomy
...for a long time I wanted to become a theologian... now, however, behold how through my efforts God is being debated in astronomy.
reading science men
Astronomy would not provide me with bread if men did not entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens.
philosophy atheism reason
In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason.
circles dwelling together
On how the motion of a planet defines its sphere: ... and thus it comes about gradually by the linking and accumulation of a great many revolutions that a kind of concave sphere is displayed, having the same center as the Sun, just as by a great many circles of silken thread, linked with each other and wound together, the dwelling of a silkworm is made.
bird singing littles
Do we ask what profit the little bird hopes for in singing?
stars sides earth
The Earth is round, and is inhabited on all sides, is insignificantly small, and is borne through the stars.
distance would-be earth
But although the attractive virtue of the earth extends upwards, as has been said, so very far, yet if any stone should be at a distance great enough to become sensible compared with the earth's diameter, it is true that on the motion of the earth such a stone would not follow altogether; its own force of resistance would be combined with the attractive force of the earth, and thus it would extricate itself in some degree from the motion of the earth.
ocean moon water
The sphere of the attractive virtue which is in the moon extends as far as the earth, and entices up the waters; but as the moon flies rapidly across the zenith, and the waters cannot follow so quickly, a flow of the ocean is occasioned in the torrid zone towards the westward.
way orbs kind
We find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind that is not possible to obtain in any other way.
simplicity unity consciousness
Nature loves simplicity and unity.