Sir Isaac Newton PRS (25 December 1642 – 20 March) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author (described in his own day as a “natural philosopher”) who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.
In Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. Newton used his mathematical description of gravity to prove Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Solar System’s heliocentricity. He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton’s inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of the visible spectrum. His work on light was collected in his highly influential book Opticks, published in 1704. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid. In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of the cubic plane curves.
Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Unusually for a member of the Cambridge faculty of the day, he refused to take holy orders in the Church of England. Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–90 and 1701–02. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696–1700) and Master (1700–1727) of the Royal Mint, as well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).
Isaac Newton Inspirational Quotes
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Isaac Newton
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.
Isaac Newton
We build too many walls and not enough bridges.
Isaac Newton
To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton Motivational Quotes
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
Isaac Newton
Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
Isaac Newton
The same law takes place in a system, consisting of many bodies, as in one single body, with regard to their persevering in their state of motion or of rest. For the progressive motion, whether of one single body or of a whole system of bodies, is always to be estimated from the motion of the center of gravity.
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
Isaac Newton Greatest Quotes
If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.
Isaac Newton
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.
Isaac Newton
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton Life Changing Quotes
Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.
Isaac Newton
It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.
Isaac Newton
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 seashore, 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
To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science.
Isaac Newton
We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton Top Quotes
An object in motion tends to remain in motion along a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.
Isaac Newton
What goes up must come down.
Isaac Newton
In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.
Isaac Newton
My powers are ordinary. Only my application brings me success.
Isaac Newton
The Ignis Fatuus is a vapor shining without heat.
Isaac Newton
There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton Quote
Genius is patience.
Isaac Newton
Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.
Isaac Newton
To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‘Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.
Isaac Newton
Absolute space, in its own nature, without regard to anything external, remains always similar and immovable. Relative space is some movable dimension or measure of the absolute spaces, which our senses determine by its position to bodies, and which is vulgarly taken for immovable space.
Isaac Newton