Top 247 Quotes & Sayings by Isaac Newton - Page 2

If the experiments which I urge be defective, it cannot be difficult to show the defects; but if valid, then by proving the theory, they must render all objections invalid.

The best and safest method of philosophizing seems to be first to inquire diligently into the properties of things, and establishing those properties by experiments, and then to proceed more slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them.

Fidelity and allegiance sworn to the King is only such a fidelity and obedience as is due to him by the law of the land; for were that faith and allegiance more than what the law requires, we would swear ourselves slaves and the King absolute; whereas, by the law, we are free men, notwithstanding those oaths.

Just as the system of the sun, planets and comets is put in motion by the forces of gravity, and its parts persist in their motions, so the smaller systems of bodies also seem to be set in motion by other forces and their particles to be variously moved in relation to each other and, especially, by the electric force.

It is reasonable that forces directed toward bodies depend on the nature and the quantity of matter of such bodies, as happens in the case of magnetic bodies.

The ancients considered mechanics in a twofold respect: as rational, which proceeds accurately by demonstration, and practical. To practical mechanics all the manual arts belong, from which mechanics took its name.

That the divided but contiguous particles of bodies may be separated from one another is a matter of observation; and, in the particles that remain undivided, our minds are able to distinguish yet lesser parts, as is mathematically demonstrated.

The hypothesis of matter's being at first evenly spread through the heavens is, in my opinion, inconsistent with the hypothesis of innate gravity without a supernatural power to reconcile them, and therefore, it infers a deity.

God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportion to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them.

It is indeed a matter of great difficulty to discover, and effectually to distinguish, the true motions of particular bodies from the apparent because the parts of that immovable space, in which those motions are performed, do by no means come under the observation of our senses.

Resistance is usually ascribed to bodies at rest, and impulse to those in motion, but motion and rest, as commonly conceived, are only relatively distinguished; nor are those bodies always truly at rest, which commonly are taken to be so.

If anyone offers conjectures about the truth of things from the mere possibility of hypotheses, I do not see by what stipulation anything certain can be determined in any science, since one or another set of hypotheses may always be devised which will appear to supply new difficulties.

Infinites, when considered absolutely without any restriction or limitation, are neither equal nor unequal, nor have any certain proportion one to another, and therefore, the principle that all infinites are equal is a precarious one.

Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

If I am anything, which I highly doubt, I have made myself so by hard work.

A Heavenly Master governs all the world as Sovereign of the universe. We are astonished at Him by reason of His perfection, we honor Him and fall down before Him because of His unlimited power. From blind physical necessity, which is always and everywhere the same, no variety adhering to time and place could evolve, and all variety of created objects which represent order and life in the universe could happen only by the willful reasoning of its original Creator, Whom I call the Lord God.

When two forces unite, their efficiency double.

I can measure the motion of bodies but I cannot measure human folly.

Live your life as an Exclamation rather than an Explanation

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history.

If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me, I had never made anything.

Where both are friends, it is right to prefer truth.

The way to chastity is not to struggle directly with incontinent thoughts but to avert the thoughts by some imployment, or by reading, or meditating on other things.

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention, than to any other talent

All my discoveries have been made in answer to prayer.

If others would think as hard as I did, then they would get similar results.

I shall not mingle conjectures with certainties.

Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.

God created everything by number, weight and measure.

Sir Isaac Newton was asked how he discovered the law of gravity. He replied, "By thinking about it all the time.

Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation.

The wonderful arrangement and harmony of the cosmos would only originate in the plan of an almighty omniscient being. This is and remains my greatest comprehension.

All knowledge and understanding of the Universe was no more than playing with stones and shells on the seashore of the vast imponderable ocean of truth.

I know not how I seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with while the vast ocean of undiscovered truth lay before me.

Poetry is a kind of ingenious nonsense.

Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

No being exists or can exist which is not related to space in some way. God is everywhere, created minds are somewhere, and body is in the space that it occupies; and whatever is neither everywhere nor anywhere does not exist. And hence it follows that space is an effect arising from the first existence of being, because when any being is postulated, space is postulated.

You have to make the rules, not follow them

If two angels were sent down from heaven -one to conduct an empire and the other to sweep the streets -they would feel no inclination to change employment because an angel would know that no matter what we are doing, it's an opportunity to bring joy, deepen our understanding and expand our life.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age

And from true lordship it follows that the true God is living, intelligent, and powerful; from the other perfections, that he is supreme, or supremely perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, he endures from eternity to eternity; and he is present from infinity to infinity; he rules all things, and he knows all things that happen or can happen.

The great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.

Nature is very consonant and conformable with herself.

The other part of the true religion is our duty to man. We must love our neighbour as our selves, we must be charitable to all men for charity is the greatest of graces, greater then even faith or hope & covers a multitude of sins. We must be righteous & do to all men as we would they should do to us.

Physics, beware of metaphysics.

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.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction

No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.

I do not feign hypotheses.

No sciences are better attested than the religion of the Bible.

He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.

The best way to understanding is a few good examples.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so we have no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

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. Let us trust his skill and thank him for his prescription.

What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

To arrive at the simplest truth requires years of contemplation.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore.

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me