Quotes from Johannes Kepler

I used to measure the Heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth. The mind belonged to Heaven, the body's shadow lies here.

So, Fabricius, I already have this: that the most true path of the planet [Mars] is an ellipse, which Dürer also calls an oval, or certainly so close to an ellipse that the difference is insensible.

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.

God gives every animal the means of saving its life-why object if he gives astrology to the astronomer?

I am much occupied with the investigation of physical causes. My aim in this is to show that the celestial machine is not similar to a divine animated being, but similar to a clock.

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

A mind is accustomed to mathematical deduction, when confronted with the faulty foundations of astrology, resists a long, long time, like an obstinate mule, until compelled by beating and curses to put its foot into that dirty puddle.

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.

Wer aber soll hausen in jenen Welten, wenn sie bewohnt sein sollten? ... Sind wir oder sie die Herren des Alls? ... Und ist dies alles dem Menschen gemacht?

In what manner does the countenace of the sky at the moment of a man's birth determine his character? It acts on the person during his life in the manner of the loops which a peasant ties at random around the pumpkins in his field: they do not cause the pumpkin to grow, but they determine its shape. The same applies to the sky: it does not endow man with his habits, history, happiness, children, riches, or a wife, but it moulds his condition....

Ships and sails proper for the heavenly air should be fashioned. Then there will also be people, who do not shrink from the dreary vastness of space.

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.

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.

I especially love analogies, my most faithful masters, acquainted with all the secrets of nature… One should make great use of them.

Advertencia para idiotas. Pero a todo aquel que sea demasiado estúpido para comprender la ciencia astronómica, o demasiado pusilánime para creer a Copérnico sin que afecte a su fe, le aconsejaría que, una vez renunciado a los estudios astronómicos, y tras haber condenado todos aquellos estudios filosóficos que le plazca, se preocupe de sus asuntos y se vaya a su casa a escarbar su terruño

The heavenly motions... are nothing but a continuous song for several voices, perceived not by the ear but by the intellect, a figured music which sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time.

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.

...for a long time I wanted to become a theologian... now, however, behold how through my efforts God is being debated in astronomy.

The squares of the periodic times are to each other as the cubes of the mean distances.

The radius vector describes equal areas in equal times.

Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife.

The Creator, the fountain of all wisdom, the approver of perpetual order, the eternal and superessential spring of geometry and harmonics.

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.

When ships to sail the void between the stars have been built, there will step forth men to sail these ships.