Why Are Things As They Are And

If This [the Mysterium Cosmographicum] Is Published, Others Will Perhaps Make Discoveries I Might Have Reserved For Myself. But We Are All Ephemeral Creatures (and None More So Than I). I Have, Therefore, For The Glory Of God, Who Wants To Be Recognized From The Book Of Nature, That These Things May Be Published As Quickly As Possible. The More Others Build On My Work The Happier I Shall Be.

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.

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.

Thus God Himself Was Too Kind To Remain Idle And Began To Play The Game Of Signatures Signing His Likeness Unto The World: Therefore I Chance To Think That All Nature And The Graceful Sky Are Symbolized In The Art Of Geometria.

If God Himself Has Waited Six Thousand Years For Someone To Contemplate His Works, My Book Can Wait For A Hundred.