I will not define time, space, place and motion, as being well known to all. Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit God created everything by number, weight and measure. (Quoted in D Brewster, Memoirs of Newton) I know not what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell, whilest the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Who, by vigor of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated. Quoted in Des MacHale, Wisdom (London, 2002) In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence. Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of Giants.Ī man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding. The latest authors, like the most ancient, strove to subordinate the phenomena of nature to the laws of mathematics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn. The description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded, belongs to mechanics. Quoted in G Simmons Calculus Gems (New York 1992). `Tis much better to do a little with certainty, and leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things. To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age.

…from the same principles, I now demonstrate the frame of the System of the World. I do not know what I may appear to the world but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.

Plato is my friend – Aristotle is my friend – but my greatest friend is truth. We build too many walls and not enough bridges. To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people. “Nature is pleased with simplicity.Tact is the art of making a point without an enemy. Let us trust his skill and thank him for his prescription.” “Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes because we need them and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.” “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, established classical mechanic. He was a key figure in the philosophical revolution known as the Enlightenment.

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author (described in his time as a “natural philosopher”) widely recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of all time and among the most influential scientists.

Sir isaac newton quotes