Nicholas Oresme Quotes
Nicholas Oresme was a French scholastic philosopher, mathematician, economist, theologian, and bishop of Lisieux, and one of the most original thinkers of the fourteenth century. Trained at the University of Paris and a long-time master of the College of Navarre, he advised King Charles V and translated Aristotle's Ethics, Politics, On the Heavens, and On the Soul into French, coining a wide vocabulary of philosophical terms that survives in modern French. The quotes below are attributed to Nicholas Oresme, organized by topic.
Browse Nicholas Oresme by topic
Nicholas Oresme on Freedom
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“Whenever kingship approaches tyranny it is near its end, for by this it becomes ripe for division, change of dynasty, or total destruction, especially in a temperate climate … where men are habitually, morally and naturally free.”
Ch. 25: That a Tyrant cannot be lasting -
“Ch. 25: That a Tyrant cannot be lasting”
Whenever kingship approaches tyranny it is near its end, for by this it becomes ripe for division, change of dynasty, or total destruction, especially in a temperate climate … where men are habitually, morally and naturally free.
Nicholas Oresme on God
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“God in His infinite grandeur without any quantity and absolutely indivisible, which we call immensity, is necessarily all in every extension or space or place which exists or can be imagined.”
Book II, Ch. 2, p. 279.
Nicholas Oresme on Justice
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“Ch. 15: That the Profit accruing to the Prince from Alteration of the Coinage is unjust”
I am of the opinion that the main and final cause why the prince pretends to the power of altering the coinage is the profit or gain which he can get from it.
Nicholas Oresme on Knowledge
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Attributed to Nicholas Oresme:
“Quantities of any kind may be represented by lines and surfaces.”
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“Since money belongs to the community … it would seem that the community may control it as it wills, and therefore may make as much profit from alteration as it likes, and treat money as its own property.”
Ch. 22: Whether the community may alter money. -
“Ch. 22: Whether the community may alter money.”
Since money belongs to the community … it would seem that the community may control it as it wills, and therefore may make as much profit from alteration as it likes, and treat money as its own property. -
“Book II, Ch. 2, p. 279.”
God in His infinite grandeur without any quantity and absolutely indivisible, which we call immensity, is necessarily all in every extension or space or place which exists or can be imagined. -
“The heavenly bodies move with such regularity, orderliness, and symmetry that it is truly a marvel; and they continue always to act in this manner ceaselessly, following the established system, without increasing or reducing speed and continuing without respite, as the Scripture says: Summer and winter, night and day they never rest.”
Book II, Ch. 2, p. 283.
Nicholas Oresme on Nature
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Attributed to Nicholas Oresme:
“It is mathematically as reasonable to suppose the Earth turns daily as to suppose the heavens do.”
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Attributed to Nicholas Oresme:
“Many natural marvels can be explained by ordinary causes, if we examine them with care.”
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“People marvel at … things only because they rarely happen; but the causes for these are as apparent as for others … For example, at night a fearful man who sees a wolf in the fields, or a cat in his room, will immediately assert and judge that it is an enemy or a devil … because he fixes his imagination on these and fears them. And a person devout and rapt [in ecstasy] will judge that it is an ang”
Nicole Oresme and The Marvels of Nature , Bert Hansen's translation (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985), p. 73.
Nicholas Oresme on Politics
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Attributed to Nicholas Oresme:
“Bad money drives out good in circulation.”
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Attributed to Nicholas Oresme:
“The prince has no right to change the value of the coinage at his pleasure.”
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“I am of the opinion that the main and final cause why the prince pretends to the power of altering the coinage is the profit or gain which he can get from it.”
Ch. 15: That the Profit accruing to the Prince from Alteration of the Coinage is unjust