Skip to content
QuoteQuest

“We are taught all this [the motion of the earth on its axis and around the sun] by the order of succession, in which those phenomena (various planetary happenings) follow each other, and by the harmony of the world, if we will only, as the saying goes, look at the matter with both eyes.”

— Nicolaus Copernicus

Verification

Attributed

Recorded by a reliable secondary source; exact wording may differ.

Listed with a citation on Wikiquote. Attribution is source-supported, not independently verified.

Live wording check · 2026-10-22

We are taught all this [the motion of the earth on its axis and around the sun] by the order of succession, in which those phenomena (various planetary happenings) follow each other, and by the harmony of the world, if we will only, as the saying goes, look at the matter with both eyes. Citation: Book 1, Ch. 9 as quoted by Edwin Arthur Burtt in The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925) Listed on https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus (CC BY-SA)
Read evidence

Source

Title
Wikiquote: Nicolaus Copernicus
Type
Wikiquote (CC BY-SA) · Secondary source
View source at publisher

Cite this source

Copernicus, Nicolaus. (n.d.). Wikiquote: Nicolaus Copernicus. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus

Check citations against your institution's style guide; some details may be missing.

Provenance: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus