Top 2 Quotes & Sayings by Roger Cotes

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English mathematician Roger Cotes.
Last updated on April 15, 2025.
Roger Cotes

Roger Cotes was an English mathematician, known for working closely with Isaac Newton by proofreading the second edition of his famous book, the Principia, before publication. He also invented the quadrature formulas known as Newton–Cotes formulas, and made a geometric argument that can be interpreted as a logarithmic version of Euler's formula. He was the first Plumian Professor at Cambridge University from 1707 until his death.

But shall gravity be therefore called an occult cause, and thrown out of philosophy, because the cause of gravity is occult and not yet discovered? Those who affirm this, should be careful not to fall into an absurdity that may overturn the foundations of all philosophy. For causes usually proceed in a continued chain from those that are more compounded to those that are more simple; when we are arrived at the most simple cause we can go no farther ... These most simple causes will you then call occult and reject them? Then you must reject those that immediately depend on them.
Those who assume hypotheses as first principles of their speculations.....may indeed form an ingenious romance, but a romance it will still be. — © Roger Cotes
Those who assume hypotheses as first principles of their speculations.....may indeed form an ingenious romance, but a romance it will still be.
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