Isaac Newton

Laws of motion and gravity

Early Modern influential 89 sayings

Sayings by Isaac Newton

What goes up must come down.

N/A — A popular simplification of his law of universal gravitation, not a direct quote from his writings i…
Humorous Unverifiable

God created everything by number, weight and measure.

1717 — From 'Opticks', Query 31, paraphrased interpretation.
Humorous Unverifiable

I build my philosophy upon the shoulders of giants.

N/A — A common misremembering of his 'shoulders of giants' quote.
Humorous Unverifiable

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

Uncertain — Attributed, but precise source in this exact phrasing is elusive. Reflects his general scientific ap…
Humorous Unverifiable

My powers are ordinary. Only my application brings me success.

Uncertain — Attributed, but source is difficult to verify.
Humorous Unverifiable

I consider the world as a stage, and the actions of men as a play, in which every one acts a part.

Uncertain — Attributed, but source is difficult to verify.
Humorous Unverifiable

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

1717 — From 'Opticks', Query 31
Humorous Unverifiable

If I am anything, which I highly doubt, it is due to hard work.

Uncertain — Attributed, but specific source is elusive.
Humorous Unverifiable

The causes of gravity are not yet discovered. It is by experiments and observations that we are to know them.

1692 — From a letter to Richard Bentley
Humorous Unverifiable

For the best and safest way of philosophizing seems to be, first to inquire diligently into the properties of things, and of establishing them by experiment, and then to proceed more slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them.

1717 — From 'Opticks', Query 31
Humorous Unverifiable

God is the same God, always and everywhere. He is omnipresent not virtually only, but also substantially; for virtue cannot subsist without substance.

1713 — From 'Principia Mathematica', General Scholium
Humorous Unverifiable

What is it that induces a man to be a philosopher? It is not the love of truth, but the love of fame, or the love of novelty, or the love of power.

Uncertain — Attributed, but specific source is elusive and sounds somewhat cynical for Newton.
Humorous Unverifiable

I was born in the year of the comet.

Uncertain, possibly a personal reflection. — Referring to the Great Comet of 1618, though he was born in 1642. This is likely a poetic or symboli…
Humorous Unverifiable