95 Johannes Kepler Quotes From The Famous Astronomer
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Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who was born in 1571 and died in 1630.
Kepler is best known for his laws of planetary motion. His work inspired Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation.
During Kepler's era, there was no source of the distinction between astrology and astronomy. On the other hand, there was a clear division between astronomy and physics. Kepler's work was integrated with religious arguments and reasoning. His belief in God creating the world played a major role in these arguments.
Kepler's work on physical astronomy and planetary motion was what fixed a lot of problematic aspects for other 17th-century world system builders, Isaac Newton being one of them.
For more related content take a look at astronomy quotes and Maimonides quotes.
Johannes Kepler Astronomy Quotes
Johannes Kepler is one of the most influential astronomers of all time. Here are some of the best quotes from Johannes Kepler on Astronomy.
1. “Nothing which consists of corporeal matter is absolutely light, but that is comparatively lighter which is rarer.”
— Johannes Kepler.
2. “I could not find out why the planet would rather go on an elliptical orbit. Oh, ridiculous me!”
— Johannes Kepler.
3. “Either… the moving intelligences of the planets are weakest in those that are farthest from the sun, or… there is one moving intelligence in the sun, the common center, forcing them all round, but those most violently which are nearest.”
— Johannes Kepler.
4. “I am a Lutheran astrologer, I throw away the nonsense and keep the hard kernel.”
— Johannes Kepler.
5. “The testimony of the ages confirm that the motions of the planets are orbicular.”
— Johannes Kepler.
6. “O telescope, instrument of knowledge, more precious than any sceptre.”
— Johannes Kepler.
7. “Repudiating the sensible world, which he neither sees himself nor believes from those who have, the Peripatetic joins combat by childish quibbling in a world on paper, and denies the Sun shines because he himself is blind.”
— Johannes Kepler.
8. “Each planet has its individual soul by whose aid the star would ascend in its circuit.”
— Johannes Kepler.
9. “Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus.”
— Johannes Kepler.
10. “There is no figure left for the orbit of the planet but a perfect ellipse.”
— Johannes Kepler.
11. “The heavenly bodies are nothing but a continuous song for several voices, a music which... sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time.”
— Johannes Kepler.
12. “My first mistake was in having assumed that the orbit on which planets move is a circle.”
— Johannes Kepler.
13. “Mother Astronomy would surely have to suffer hunger if the daughter Astrology did not earn their bread.”
— Johannes Kepler.
14. “Nature has given us astrology as an adjunct and ally to astronomy.”
— Johannes Kepler.
15. “Astronomy would not provide me with bread if men did not entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens.”
— Johannes Kepler.
16. “If there is anything that can bind the mind of man to this dreary exile of our earthly home and can reconcile us with our fate so that one can enjoy living,—then it is verily the enjoyment of the mathematical sciences and astronomy.”
— Johannes Kepler.
17. “As in every discipline, so in astronomy, too, the conclusions that we teach the reader are seriously intended, and our discussion is no mere game.”
— Johannes Kepler.
18. “I had the intention of becoming a theologian...but now I see how God is, by my endeavors, also glorified in astronomy, for ‘the heavens declare the glory of God.’”
— Johannes Kepler.
19. “The proportion between the periodic times of any two planets is precisely the sesquialterate proportion of their mean distances.”
— Johannes Kepler.
Johannes Kepler Quotes About Earth
Here's a list of quotes by Johannes Kepler on his research on Earth and the planetary system.
20. “There is a force in the earth which causes the moon to move.”
— Johannes Kepler.
21. “The sphere of the earth as a unit and circumscribe it with a regular dodecahedron. The sphere that contains this dodecahedron is the sphere of Mars.”
— Johannes Kepler.
22. “I used to measure the skies, now I measure the shadows of Earth. Although my mind was sky-bound, the shadow of my body lies here.”
— Johannes Kepler.
23. “Wheresoever the earth may be placed, or whithersoever it may be carried by its animal faculty, heavy bodies will always be carried towards it.”
— Johannes Kepler.
24. “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.”
— Johannes Kepler.
25. “The Earth sings Mi-Fa-Mi, so we can gather ever from this that Misery and Famine reign in our habitat.”
— Johannes Kepler.
26. “If the earth should cease to attract its waters to itself all the waters of the sea would be raised and would flow to the body of the moon.”
— Johannes Kepler.
27. “I demonstrate by means of philosophy that the earth is round, and is inhabited on all sides; that it is insignificantly small, and is borne through the stars.”
— Johannes Kepler.
Johannes Kepler Geometry Quotes
Kepler was also a famous Mathematician of his time and was intrigued by Geometry. Here are some of his best quotes regarding Geometry.
28. “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.”
— Johannes Kepler.
29. “And I cherish more than anything else the Analogies, my most trustworthy masters.”
— Johannes Kepler.
30. “The Creator, the fountain of all wisdom, the approver of perpetual order, the eternal and superessential spring of geometry and harmonics.”
— Johannes Kepler.
31. “Geometry is the archetype of the beauty of the world.”
— Johannes Kepler.
32. “Where there is matter, there is geometry.”
— Johannes Kepler.
33. “Geometry existed before the creation. It is co-eternal with the mind of God.”
— Johannes Kepler.
34. “Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God.”
— Johannes Kepler.
35. “Geometry has two great treasures; one is the Theorem of Pythagoras; the other, the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold; the second we may name a precious jewel.”
— Johannes Kepler.
36. “Geometry provided God with a model for the Creation.”
— Johannes Kepler.
Philosophical Johannes Kepler Quotes
Check out these Johannes Kepler quotes on harmony and the existence of life in the world.
37. “Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife.”
— Johannes Kepler.
38. “Wherever there are qualities there are likewise quantities, but not always vice versa.”
— Johannes Kepler.
39. “Just as the eye was made to see colors, and the ear to hear sounds, so the human mind was made to understand, not whatever you please, but quantity.”
— Johannes Kepler.
40. “So long as the mother, Ignorance, lives, it is not safe for Science the offspring, to divulge the hidden causes of things.”
— Johannes Kepler.
41. “There are as many comets in the sky as fishes in the ocean…”
— Johannes Kepler.
42. “Do we ask what profit the little bird hopes for in singing?”
— Johannes Kepler.
43. “When the storm rages and the shipwreck of the state threatens, we can do nothing more worthy than to sink the anchor of our peaceful studies into the ground of eternity.”
— Johannes Kepler.
44. “Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse.”
— Johannes Kepler.
45. “Nature uses as little as possible of anything.”
— Johannes Kepler.
46. “We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing.”
— Johannes Kepler.
47. “Sky-bound was the mind, Earth-bound the body rests.”
— Johannes Kepler.
48. “Why are things as they are and not otherwise?”
— Johannes Kepler.
49. “The roads by which men arrive at their insights into celestial matters seem to me almost as worthy of wonder as those matters in themselves.”
— Johannes Kepler.
50. “Eyesight should learn from reason.”
— Johannes Kepler.
51. “Man wanted to reproduce the continuity of cosmic time.”
— Johannes Kepler.
52. “The mind comprehends a thing the more correctly the closer the thing approaches toward pure quantity as its origin.”
— Johannes Kepler.
53. “No operation of addition or subtraction gives rise to diversity, but all are equally related to their pair of Terms, or Elements.”
— Johannes Kepler.
54. “Nothing can be known completely except quantities or by quantities.”
— Johannes Kepler.
55. “We ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens.”
— Johannes Kepler.
56. “Quantity is the fundamental feature of things prior to the other categories.”
— Johannes Kepler.
Johannes Kepler Quotes About God
Kepler had a strong conviction about God, here are some of the best quotes from him regarding God and his creations.
57. “I believe only and alone in the service of Jesus Christ. In him is all refuge and solace.”
— Johannes Kepler.
58. “Ye heavens, sing His praises; sun, moon, and planets, glorify Him in your ineffable language!”
— Johannes Kepler.
59. “God gives every animal the means of saving its life-why object if he gives astrology to the astronomer.”
— Johannes Kepler.
60. “God is the kind Creator who brought forth nature out of nothing.”
— Johannes Kepler.
61. “The sun alone appears, by virtue of his dignity and power, suited for this motive duty and worthy to become the home of God himself.”
— Johannes Kepler.
62. “Now, as God the maker play’d he taught the game to Nature whom he created in his image; taught her the selfsame game which he played to her.”
— Johannes Kepler.
63. “I had always prayed to God that if Copernicus has spoken truth, all would come out as it did.”
— Johannes Kepler.
64. “Can I find God, who in the contemplation of the entire universe I can almost feel in my hands, also in myself.”
— Johannes Kepler.
65. “God gives every animal the means of saving its life—why object if he gives astrology to the astronomer?”
— Johannes Kepler.
66. “The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.”
— Johannes Kepler.
67. “Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.”
— Johannes Kepler.
68. “I can give myself up to the sacred frenzy.”
— Johannes Kepler.
69. “God wanted us to recognize them [laws of nature] by creating us after his own image so that we could share in his own thoughts.”
— Johannes Kepler.
70. “I am indeed casting the die and writing the book, either for my contemporaries or for posterity to read, it matters not which: let the book await its reader for a hundred years; God himself has waited six thousand years for his work to be seen.”
— Johannes Kepler.
71. “Every corporeal substance, so far forth as it is corporeal, has a natural fitness for resting in every place where it may be situated by itself beyond the sphere of influence of a body cognate with it.”
— Johannes Kepler.
Johannes Kepler Famous Quotes
These quotes are some of the best Johannes Kepler quotes that are as popular as quotes can get.
72. “Discover the force of the skies O Men: once recognized it can be put to use.”
— Johannes Kepler.
73. “For astronomers ought not simply to enjoy a license of making any fictions they choose without rational grounds.”
— Johannes Kepler.
74. “The radius vector describes equal areas in equal times.”
— Johannes Kepler.
75. “However, before we come to creation, which puts an end to all discussion: I think we should try everything else.”
— Johannes Kepler.
76. “My aim in this is to show that the celestial machine is to be likened not to a divine organism, but rather a clockwork.”
— Johannes Kepler.
77. “I also ask you my friends not to condemn me entirely to the mill of mathematical calculations, and allow me time for philosophical speculations, my only pleasures.”
— Johannes Kepler.
78. “The squares of the periodic times are to each other as the cubes of the mean distances.”
— Johannes Kepler.
79. “Nature loves simplicity and unity.”
— Johannes Kepler.
80. “In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason.”
— Johannes Kepler.
81. “I do not believe that even in a snowflake this ordered pattern exists at random.”
— Johannes Kepler.
82. “The more others build on my work the happier I shall be.”
— Johannes Kepler.
83. “Once miracles are admitted, every scientific explanation is out of the question.”
— Johannes Kepler.
84. “The harnessing to a rational pursuit of the immense psychic energies derived from an irrational obsession seems to be another secret of genius, at least of genius of a certain type.”
— Johannes Kepler.
85. “The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.”
— Johannes Kepler.
86. “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.”
— Johannes Kepler.
87. “I contemplate its beauty with incredible and ravishing delight.”
— Johannes Kepler.
88. “I really believe that at last the world is alive, indeed seething, and that the stimuli of these remarkable conjunctions did not act in vain.”
— Johannes Kepler.
89. “When ships to sail the void between the stars have been built, there will step forth men to sail these ships.”
— Johannes Kepler.
90. “These comments are not worth printing. Yet it gives me pleasure to remember how many detours I had to make, along how many walls I had to grope in the darkness of my ignorance until I found the door which lets in the light of truth. In such manner did I dream of the truth.”
— Johannes Kepler.
91. “Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes.”
— Johannes Kepler.
92. “The earth attracts a stone much rather than the stone seeks the earth.”
— Johannes Kepler.
93. “So it happens that the conclusions of mathematics are most certain and indubitable.”
— Johannes Kepler.
94. “I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me I shall rejoice; if you are angry, I shall bear it.”
— Johannes Kepler.
95. “Without proper experiments I conclude nothing.”
— Johannes Kepler.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Johannes Kepler quotes then why not take a look at Max Planck quotes, or [Wernher Von Braun quotes]?
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