Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher whose Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy laid the foundation for classical mechanics and helped to inaugurate modern science. His three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation unified terrestrial and celestial physics in a single mathematical framework. He co-developed the calculus with Leibniz and made foundational contributions to optics. The General Scholium appended to the Principia and his letters to Bentley contain his philosophical reflections on God, absolute space and time, and the limits of mechanical explanation. He served as Master of the Royal Mint and as President of the Royal Society.
Key facts
- Nationality
- English
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Early Modern, Empiricism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Isaac Newton:
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
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Attributed to Isaac Newton:
“I do not feign hypotheses.”
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Attributed to Isaac Newton:
“Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.”
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Attributed to Isaac Newton:
“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
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Attributed to Isaac Newton:
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”