“Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.”

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!

To arrive at the simplest truth requires years of contemplation.

Hypotheses should be subservient only in explaining the properties of things but not assumed in determining them, unless so far as they may furnish experiments.

The moon gravitates towards the earth and by the force of gravity is continually drawn off from a rectilinear motion and retained in its orbit.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy.

The art of drawing conclusions from experiments and observations consists in evaluating probabilities and in estimating whether they are sufficiently great or numerous enough to constitute proofs. This kind of calculation is more complicated and more difficult than it is commonly thought to be.

I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Each person’s work is always a portrait of himself.

I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire.

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.

Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you.

Sunlight is painting.

Giving comfort under affliction requires that penetration into the human mind, joined to that experience which knows how to soothe, how to reason, and how to ridicule; taking the utmost care never to apply those arts improperly.