What phrase is attributed to Galileo after his abjuration?

The phrase attributed to Galileo after his abjuration is “E pur si muove.”

The Italian expression translates roughly as “And yet it moves,” referring to the Earth’s motion around the Sun. According to the familiar story, Galileo muttered it after being forced in 1633 to recant his support for heliocentrism before the Roman Inquisition. The phrase became a powerful symbol of scientific conviction surviving official condemnation.

The attribution, however, is not historically certain. Galileo’s trial records do not contain the saying, and his early biographer Vincenzo Viviani did not report it. The story first appeared in print in 1757, more than a century after the trial, in Giuseppe Baretti’s account of Italian writers. A painting dated around 1643–1645 has also been associated with the words, but its provenance and dating have been disputed.

Thus, “E pur si muove” is the canonical answer to the trivia question because it is commonly attributed to Galileo, not because historians can prove he said it during the abjuration. “Eppur si muove” is an accepted variant spelling.