“The great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.

Genius is patience.

Whence arises all that order and beauty we see in the world?

Nothing can be divided into more parts than it can possibly be constituted of. But matter (i.e. finite) cannot be constituted of infinite parts.

I do not think that this [the universe] can be explained only by natural causes, and are forced to impute to the wisdom and ingenuity of an intelligent.

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.

Pictures, propagated by motion along the fibers of the optic nerves in the brain, are the cause of vision.

I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the force of gravity, but I have not yet assigned a cause to gravity.

Absolute, true and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature flows equably without relation to anything external.

The proper method for inquiring after the properties of things is to deduce them from experiments.

He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.

God created everything by number, weight and measure.

It seems probable to me that God, in the beginning, formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles.

Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.

Oh Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest the mischief done!

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast.

We of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking.

Men will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences. Science will go on whether we are pessimistic or optimistic, as I am. More interesting discoveries than we can imagine will be made, and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm.

It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.

It must be, for there is a logic to everything on this earth and nothing is done without a reason, that God sometimes lets scientists discover.

Everybody had to be thoroughly understood before being accepted.

I don’t like work but I like what is in work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself, not for others – which no other man can ever know.