Astronomers From England

"In the year [1666] he retired again from Cambridge to his mother in & whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which made an apple fall from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth, but must extend much farther than was usually thought — Why not as high as the Moon said he to himself, & if so that must influence her motion & perhaps retain her in her orbit. Whereupon he fell a calculating what would be the effect of that supposition being absent from the books & taking the common estimate in use among Geographers & our seamen before Norwood had measured the earth, that to 60 Engish miles were contained in one degree of . His computation did not agree with his Theory and inclined him then to entertain a notion that together with the power of gravity there might be a mixture of that force which the moon would have if it was carried along a vortex, but when the Tract of Picard of the measure of the earth came out shewing that a degree was about 69 1/2 English miles, he began his calculation anew & found it perfectly in agreement to his Theory."

"Of the many references to Newton in 18th-century electrical writings only a small number were to the Principia, the greater part by far were to the Opticks. This was true not alone of the electrical writings but also in other fields of experimental enquiry. ...[The Opticks] would allow the reader to roam, with great Newton as his guide, through the major unresolved problems of science and even the relation of the whole world of nature to Him who had created it. ...in the Opticks Newton did not adopt the motto... —Hypotheses non fingo; I frame no hypotheses—but, so to speak, let himself go, allowing his imagination full reign and by far exceeding the bounds of experimental evidence."

"Opticks was out of harmony with the ideas of 19th-century physics. ...an exposition of the "wrong" (i.e., corpuscular) theory of light,—even though it also contained many of the basic principles of the "correct" (i.e., wave) theory. Not only had Newton erred in his choice... but also he apparently had found no insuperable difficulty in simultaneously embracing features of two opposing theories. ...by adopting a combination of the two theories at once, he had violated one of the major canons of 19th-century physics... Today our point of view is influenced by the theory of photons and matter waves, or the... complementarity of Neils Bohr; and we may read with a new interest Newtons ideas on the interaction of light and matter or his explanation of the corpuscular and undulatory aspects of light."

"My quotations from Newton suggest the motive which induced him to take a stand against the use of hypotheses, namely, the danger of becoming involved in disagreeable controversies. ...Newton could no more dispense with hypotheses in his own cogitations than an eagle can dispense with flight. Nor did Newton succeed in avoiding controversy."

"When Newton saw an apple fall, he found In that slight startle from his contemplation ... A mode of proving that the earth turn'd round In a most natural whirl, called 'gravitation'."

"The history of mathematics and mechanics for a hundred years subsequent to Newton appears primarily as a period devoted to the assimilation of his work and the application of his laws to more varied types of phenomena. So far as objects were masses, moving in space and time under the impress of forces as he had defined them, their behaviour was now, as a result of his labours, fully explicable in terms of exact mathematics."

"A student of the history of physical science will assign to Newton a further importance which the average man can hardly appreciate. ...the separation ...of positive scientific inquiries from questions of ultimate causation."

"There is a basic incompatibility between any organization and freedom of thought. Suppose Newton had founded a Church of Newtonian Physics and refused to show his formula to anyone who doubted the tenets of Newtonian Physics?"

"Newton is known for humbly declaring that he had achieved his great breakthroughs by 'standing on the shoulders of giants.' Though this may be true in part, it is largely humbug. Newton was hardly humble, and it would be just as true to say that he achieved greatness by stamping on the shoulders of giants. When others, such as Robert Hooke and Gottfried Leibniz, made breakthroughs in fields he was also researching, Newton fought ferociously to deny them credit for their work."

"If Sir Isaac Newton had not been distinguished as a mathematician and a natural philosopher, he would have enjoyed a high reputation as a theologian."

"[T]he life and writings of Sir Isaac Newton abound with the richest counsel. Here the philosopher will learn the art by which alone he can acquire an immortal name. The moralist will trace the lineaments of a character adjusted to all the symmetry of which our imperfect nature is susceptible; and the Christian will contemplate with delight the high-priest of science quitting the study of the material universe,—the scene of his intellectual triumphs,—to investigate with humility and patience the mysteries of his faith."

"The landscape has been so totally changed, the ways of thinking have been so deeply affected, that it is very hard to get hold of what it was like before... It is very hard to realize how total a change in outlook he has produced."

"No monument should stand over [my] grave, only an apple-tree, in memory of the three apples; the two of Eve and Paris, which made hell out of earth, and that of Newton, which elevated the earth again into the circle of heavenly bodies."

"Now I a fourfold vision see, And a fourfold vision is given to me ; 'Tis fourfold in my supreme delight, And threefold in soft Beulah's night, And twofold Always. May God us keep From Single vision, & Newton's sleep !"

"Amicus Plato — amicus Aristoteles — magis amica veritas"

"Kepler succeeded in showing that the planets move along elliptic paths and that the sun lies at a focus of each of these s... Each planet moves so that a straight line drawn to connect it with the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. ...The discoveries ...enabled Newton to formulate the laws of mechanics in general and those of gravitation in particular. ...He was able to develop Kepler's laws into a comprehensive physical theory only because he managed first to create the necessary mathematical tools... differential and integral calculus, the basic mathematical techniques for dealing with variable quantities, such as the movement of bodies in the course of time. ...[H]e succeeded in drawing from Kepler's empirical laws the principles of motion that applied [to] every instant of time and thus shaped planetary motion into complete orbits."

"Newton's own motto, "hypotheses non fingo" was, in a sense, disregarded by Newton himself: he rejected hypotheses only where they violated his own "regula philosophandi", that is to say, his principle of their strict parsimony. In terms of present-day methodology, we reject hypotheses as scientifically meaningless if they are incapable even of indirect test; and we reject them as superfluous or as implausible if they are too complex and artificial to conform with well established canons of inductive probability. But freedom of scientific theorizing must be preserved wherever the conditions of meaningfulness and of economy appear to be satisfied."

"The greatest scientist who ever lived was Isaac Newton...[about Principia Mathematica] By all odds it's the greatest scientific book ever written or ever will be written, I think."

"According to Sir Isaac Newton's Calculations, the last Comet that made its Appearance in 1680, imbib'd so much Heat by its Approaches to the Sun, that it would have been two thousand times hotter than red hot Iron, had it been a Globe of that Metal; and that supposing it as big as the Earth, and at the same Distance from the Sun, it would be fifty thousand Years in cooling, before it recovered its natural Temper. In the like manner, if an Englishman considers the great Ferment into which our Political World is thrown at present, and how intensely it is heated in all its Parts, he cannot suppose that it will cool again in less than three hundred Years. In such a Tract of Time it is possible that the Heats of the present Age may be extinguished, and our several Classes of great Men represented under their proper Characters. Some eminent Historian may then probably arise that will not write recentibus odiis (as Tacitus expresses it) with the Passions and Prejudices of a contemporary Author, but make an impartial Distribution of Fame among the Great Men of the present Age."

"Newton and Locke are examples of the deep sagacity which may be acquired by long habits of thinking and study."

"Les hommes construisent trop de murs et pas assez de ponts."

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy."

"Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance."

"If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me, I had never made anything."

"I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people."

"Through algebra you easily arrive at equations, but always to pass therefrom to the elegant constructions and demonstrations which usually result by means of the method of porisms is not so easy, nor is one's ingenuity and power of invention so greatly exercised and refined in this analysis."

"The Simplicity of Figures depend upon the Simplicity of their Genesis and Ideas, and an Æquation is nothing else than a Description (either Geometrical or Mechanical) by which a Figure is generated and rendered more easy to the Conception."

"The Ellipse is the most simple of the Conic Sections, most known, and nearest of Kin to a Circle, and easiest describ'd by the Hand in plano. Though many prefer the Parabola before it, for the Simplicity of the Æquation by which it is express'd. But by this Reason the Parabola ought to be preferr'd before the Circle it self, which it never is. Therefore the reasoning from the Simplicity of the Æquation will not hold. The modern Geometers are too fond of the Speculation of Æquations."

"In my Judgment no Lines ought to be admitted into plain Geometry besides the right Line and the Circle."