Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion more interesting than the inventions themselves.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZNothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion more interesting than the inventions themselves.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZOne cannot explain words without making incursions into the sciences themselves, as is evident from dictionaries; and, conversely, one cannot present a science without at the same time defining its terms.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZTaking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time when Newton lived, what he had done was much the better half.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZVirtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZThere are also two kinds of truths: truth of reasoning and truths of fact.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZI hold that it is only when we can prove everything we assert that we understand perfectly the thing under consideration.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZAll things in God are spontaneous.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZEvery present state of a simple substance is the natural consequence of its preceding state, in such a way that its present is big with its future.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZIn my judgment an organic machine new to nature never arises, since it always contains an infinity of organs so that it can express, in its own way, the whole universe; indeed, it always contains all past and present times.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZThe knowledge which we have acquired ought not to resemble a great shop without order, and without an inventory; we ought to know what we possess, and be able to make it serve us in need.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZNatural religion itself, seems to decay very much. Many will have human souls to be material: others make God himself a corporeal being.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZWe live in the best of all possible worlds.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZBut it is the knowledge of necessary and eternal truths which distinguishes us from mere animals, and gives us reason and the sciences, raising us to knowledge of ourselves and God. It is this in us which we call the rational soul or mind.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZHe who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZTo love is to find pleasure in the happiness of others.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZI am convinced that the unwritten knowledge scattered among men of different callings surpasses in quantity and in importance anything we find in books, and that the greater part of our wealth has yet to be recorded.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ