Gottfried Leibniz Quotes
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a 17th-century German polymath and one of the leading rationalist philosophers of the early modern period. He invented infinitesimal calculus independently of Newton and developed binary number theory, foundational to modern computing. The quotes below are attributed to Gottfried Leibniz, organized by topic.
Gottfried Leibniz on God
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“Why is there something rather than nothing? The sufficient reason is found in a substance which is a necessary being bearing the reason for its existence within itself.”
Gottfried Leibniz on Knowledge
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“Nothing happens without a sufficient reason.”
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion, more interesting than the inventions themselves.”
Gottfried Leibniz on Life
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“We live in the best of all possible worlds.”
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labour of calculation.”
Gottfried Leibniz on Mind
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“Music is a hidden arithmetical exercise of the mind unconscious that it is calculating.”
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“There is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses, except the intellect itself.”
Gottfried Leibniz on Time
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“The present is great with the future.”
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“Each present state of a substance naturally arises from its own preceding state, in such a way that the present is pregnant with the future.”
Gottfried Leibniz on Truth
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Attributed to Gottfried Leibniz:
“There are two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; truths of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible.”