Nations are not ruined by one act of violence, but gradually and in an almost imperceptible manner by the depreciation of their circulating currency, through its excessive quantity.
Nicolaus CopernicusRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the anticipation of resistance to groundbreaking scientific ideas.
In this quote, Nicolaus Copernicus acknowledges that his revolutionary theory about the Earth's motion around the sun will likely be met with skepticism and rejection from those who are unwilling to accept new ideas. It highlights the challenges faced by innovators when proposing concepts that challenge established beliefs.
Themes
ScienceBeliefTheoryInnovationResistance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a lecture on the history of science to illustrate the resistance faced by revolutionary thinkers.
More from Nicolaus Copernicus
All quotes →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.
Nicolaus CopernicusRead
So if the worth of the arts were measured by the matter with which they deal, this art-which some call astronomy, others astrology, and many of the ancients the consummation of mathematics-would be by far the most outstanding. This art which is as it were the head of all the liberal arts and the one most worthy of a free man leans upon nearly all the other branches of mathe matics. Arithmetic, geometry, optics, geodesy, mechanics, and whatever others, all offer themselves in its service.
Nicolaus CopernicusRead
Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heavens as its center, would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves.
Nicolaus CopernicusRead
The strongest affection and utmost zeal should, I think, promote the studies concerned with the most beautiful objects, most deserving to be known.
Nicolaus CopernicusRead
The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens.
Nicolaus CopernicusRead
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