“All these efforts in the search for truth tend to lead it”

— Pierre-Simon Laplace, book Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

Philosophical Essay on Probabilities (1902)
Context: All these efforts in the search for truth tend to lead it [the human mind] back continually to the vast intelligence... but from which it will always remain infinitely removed. This tendency peculiar to the human race is that which renders it superior... and their progress in this respect distinguishes nations and ages and constitutes their true glory.<!--pp.4-5

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "All these efforts in the search for truth tend to lead it" by Pierre-Simon Laplace?

Pierre-Simon Laplace15

French mathematician and astronomer 1749–1827

Related quotes

“The search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don't want to go there.”

Bart D. Ehrman (1955) American academic

Source: Forged: Writing in the Name of God

“Form and size constitute the foundation of all search for truth.”

Francis Wayland Parker (1837–1902) Union Army officer

Source: Talks on Pedagogics, (1894), p. 72. Reported in Moritz (1914, 292)

“That is why a criminal trial is not a search for truth. Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Alan M. Dershowitz (1938) American lawyer, author

[Alan, Dershowitz, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576429783247016492.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop, Casey Anthony: The System Worked, The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2011, July 7, 2011] published 2011-07-07

“…In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

“seeker of truth
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

3
73 poems (1963)

“Relying on words to lead you to the truth is like relying on an incomplete formal system to lead you to the truth. A formal system will give you some truths, but as we shall soon see, a formal system, no matter how powerful—cannot lead to all truths.”

Douglas Hofstadter book Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

Source: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979), Chapter 9: "Mumon and Gödel"

“We've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we've not been very inventive.”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 46
Context: We've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we've not been very inventive. In the West, Heaven is placid and fluffy, and Hell is like the inside of a volcano. In many stories, both realms are governed by dominance hierarchies headed by gods or devils. Monotheists talked about the king of kings. In every culture we imagined something like our own political system running the Universe. Few found the similarity suspicious.