Isaac Newton idézet

„Isten mindent szám, súly és mérték alapján teremtett.“

—  Isaac Newton

Neki tulajdonított idézetek
Eredeti: Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit.

„Platón a barátom — Arisztotelész a barátom — de a legnagyobb barátom az igazság.“

—  Isaac Newton

Latin jegyzetek, melyeket magának írt: Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Bizonyos filozófiai kérdések) címmel (1664)
Eredeti: Amicus Plato — amicus Aristoteles — magis amica veritas

„Minden akciónak van egy azzal egyenlő nagyságú, de ellentétes irányú reakciója.“

—  Isaac Newton, könyv Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Principia Mathematica (1687) A mozgás III. törvénye

„Én nem alkotok hipotéziseket.“

—  Isaac Newton, Hypotheses non fingo

Principia Mathematica (1687)
A gravitációs elmélet egy fundamentális empirikus törvény, de Newton nem alkotott hipotézist a gravitáció működését illetően.
Eredeti: Hypotheses non fingo.

„Nem tudom, a világ mit gondol rólam, de a saját szememben csak egy gyermek vagyok, aki a tengerparton játszik, és néha leköti a figyelmét egy, az átlagosnál simább kavics vagy díszesebb kagyló, miközben előtte felfedezetlenül hullámzik az igazság óceánja. (David Brewster, 1860: Memoires of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. Vol.2. Edinburgh, Edmonston.“

—  Isaac Newton

„A természeti jelenségek magyarázatához nem szabad több okot felvenni, mint amennyi igaz, s amennyi a szóban lévő jelenség magyarázatához szükséges.“

—  Isaac Newton

Neki tulajdonított idézetek

„Egy pontszerű test gyorsulása egyenesen arányos a testre ható (a gyorsulással azonos irányú) erővel, és fordítva arányos a test tömegével.“

—  Isaac Newton, könyv Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Principia Mathematica (1687) A mozgás II. törvénye

„Minden test nyugalomban marad, vagy megtartja egyenes vonalú egyenletes sebességű mozgását mindaddig, míg egy másik test ennek megváltoztatására nem kényszeríti.“

—  Isaac Newton, könyv Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Principia Mathematica (1687) A mozgás I. törvénye

„…olyan vagyok, mint a tengerparton játszó gyermek, aki játék közben imitt-amott egy, a szokottnál laposabb kavicsot vagy szebb kagylót talál, míg az igazság nagy óceánja egészében felfedezetlenül terül el tekintetem előtt.“

—  Isaac Newton

Neki tulajdonított idézetek

„Én távolabbra láthattam, de csak azért, mert óriások vállán álltam.“

—  Isaac Newton

Levél Robert Hooke-nak (1675. február 5. )

„A fizika minden nehézsége, úgy látszik, abban áll, hogy mozgásjelenségekből a természet erőit kikutassuk, s azután ezeknek az erőknek a segítségével a többi jelenséget megmagyarázzuk.“

—  Isaac Newton

Neki tulajdonított idézetek

„A természet semmit sem tesz hiába, s mindaz, ami sok ok révén történik, bár kevesebbel is megvalósítható lett volna, fölösleges. A természet ugyanis egyszerű, s nem használja a dolgok felesleges okait.“

—  Isaac Newton

Neki tulajdonított idézetek

„Az emberek túl sok falat és kevés hidat építenek.“

—  Isaac Newton

„… azonos hatásokat ugyanazon okoknak kell tulajdonítani.“

—  Isaac Newton

Neki tulajdonított idézetek

„What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.“

—  Isaac Newton

„Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons which God hath put into his own breast.“

—  Isaac Newton

An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1704), regarding his calculations "Of the End of the World" based upon the prophecies of Daniel, quoted in Look at the Moon! the Revelation Chronology (2007) by John A. Abrams, p. 141
Modern typographical and spelling variant:
This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.
As quoted in "The world will end in 2060, according to Newton" in the London Evening Standard (19 June 2007) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23401099-the-world-will-end-in-2060-according-to-newton.do
Kontextus: The 2300 years do not end before the year 2132 nor after 2370.
The time times & half time do not end before 2060..... It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons which God hath put into his own breast.

„I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.“

—  Isaac Newton

Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27). Compare: "As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore", John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book iv. Line 330

„Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.“

—  Isaac Newton

Les hommes construisent trop de murs et pas assez de ponts.
This became widely attributed to Isaac Newton after Dominique Pire ascribed it to "the words of Newton" in his Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1958. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1958/pire-lecture.html Pire refers not to Isaac, but to Joseph Fort Newton, who is widely reported to have said "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges." This appears to be paraphrased from a longer passage found in his essays and addresses, The One Great Church: Adventures of Faith (1948), pp. 51–52: "Why are so many people shy, lonely, shut up within themselves, unequal to their tasks, unable to be happy? Because they are inhabited by fear, like the man in the Parable of the Talents, erecting walls around themselves instead of building bridges into the lives of others; shutting out life."
Misattributed

„While the particles continue entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same nature and texture in all ages: but should they wear away or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed.“

—  Isaac Newton, könyv Opticks, or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light

Query 31 : Have not the small particles of bodies certain powers, virtues, or forces, by which they act at a distance, not only upon the rays of light for reflecting, refracting, and inflecting them, but also upon one another for producing a great part of the Phenomena of nature? <br/> How these Attractions may be perform'd, I do not here consider. What I call Attraction may be perform'd by impulse, or by some other means unknown to me. I use that Word here to signify only in general any Force by which Bodies tend towards one another, whatsoever be the Cause. For we must learn from the Phaenomena of Nature what Bodies attract one another, and what are the Laws and Properties of the attraction, before we enquire the Cause by which the Attraction is perform'd, The Attractions of Gravity, Magnetism and Electricity, react to very sensible distances, and so have been observed by vulgar Eyes, and there may be others which reach to so small distances as hitherto escape observation; and perhaps electrical Attraction may react to such small distances, even without being excited by Friction
Opticks (1704)
Kontextus: It seems probable to me that God, in the beginning, formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportions to space, as most conduced to the end for which He formed them; and that these primitive particles, being solids, are incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded of them, even so very hard as never to wear or break in pieces; no ordinary power being able to divide what God had made one in the first creation. While the particles continue entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same nature and texture in all ages: but should they wear away or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed.<!-- Book III, Part I, pp.375-376 http://books.google.com/books?id=XXu4AkRVBBoC