Quotes from Johannes Kepler

Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus.

Astronomy would not provide me with bread if men did not entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens.

So long as the mother, Ignorance, lives, it is not safe for Science the offspring, to divulge the hidden causes of things.

Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.

Nature loves simplicity and unity.

[God] is the kind Creator who brought forth nature out of nothing.

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.'

My greatest desire is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the external world, in like manner also within and inside myself.

If God himself has waited six thousand years for someone to contemplate his works, my book can wait for a hundred.

I believe the geometric proportion served the creator as an idea when He introduced the continuous generation of similar objects from similar objects.

It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.

Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God

Geometry existed before the creation. It is co-eternal with the mind of God...Geometry provided God with a model for the Creation.

The sun alone appears, by virtue of his dignity and power, suited for this motive duty (of moving the planets) and worthy to become the home of God himself.

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.

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.

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

I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.

Science is the process of thinking God's thoughts after Him.

Where there is matter, there is geometry.

Why are things as they are and not otherwise?

O telescope, instrument of much knowledge, more precious than any sceptre!

Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God. That share in it accorded to men is one of the reasons that Man is the image of God.

Eyesight should learn from reason.