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Gottfried Leibniz Quotes

Mathematician

German mathematician, philosopher, historian, and inventor. Gottfried Leibniz is one of the founders of calculus and has made significant contributions to mathematics, philosophy, history, and other fields.

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All Words Of Wisdom Science Reason Soul Substance Order World Mathematics Universe Ifs

Famous Gottfried Leibniz Quotes

“Indeed every monad must be different from every other. For there are never in nature two beings, which are precisely alike, and in which it is not possible to find some difference which is internal, or based on some intrinsic quality.”

Two Different Differences Quality Words Of Wisdom Internals

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“I also take it as granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one.”

Subjects Words Of Wisdom Granted

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“To love is to take delight in happiness of another, or, what amounts to the same thing, it is to account another's happiness as one's own.”

Love Is Amount Accounts Delight Happiness And Love

Book:The philosophical works of Leibnitz .

Source: The philosophical works of Leibnitz .

“We may say, that not only the soul (the mirror of an indestructible universe) is indestructible, but also the animal itself is, although its mechanism is frequently destroyed in parts.”

Soul Universe Mirrors Indestructible

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“Every 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.”

Way States Philosophy Bigs Natural Simple Consequence Substance Natural Consequences

Book:The Rationalists: Descartes: Discourse on Method & Meditations; Spinoza: Ethics; Leibniz: Monadolo gy & Discourse on Metaphysics

Source: The Rationalists: Descartes: Discourse on Method & Meditations; Spinoza: Ethics; Leibniz: Monadolo gy & Discourse on Metaphysics

“Each portion of matter may be conceived of as a garden full of plants, and as a pond full of fishes. But each branch of the plant, each member of the animal, each drop of its humors, is also such a garden or such a pond.”

May Matter Animal Members Garden Plant Chaos Fishes Complexity Branches Portions Ecology Ponds

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“Everything that is possible demands to exist.”

Demand

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“I do not believe that a world without evil, preferable in order to ours, is possible; otherwise it would have been preferred. It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted. The combination of all the tendencies to the good has produced the best; but as there are goods that are incompatible together, this combination and this result can introduce the destruction of some good, and as a result some evil.”

World Believe Has Beens Together Order Evil Results Destruction Tendencies Combination Goods Introducing Mixtures

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times.”

Men Time Achievement Mathematics Math Admire Mathematical Admiration

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“If we were magically shrunk and put into someone's brain while she was thinking, we would see all the pumps, pistons, gears and levers working away and we would be able to describe the workings completely, in mechanical terms, thereby completely describing the thought processes of the brain. But that description would not contain any mention of thought! It would contain nothing but descriptions of pumps, pistons, levers!”

Ifs Thinking Would Be Able Process Term Brain Programming Description Describing Gears Pumps Levers Thought Process

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“In symbols one observes an advantage in discovery which is greatest when they express the exact nature of a thing briefly and, as it were, picture it; then indeed the labor of thought is wonderfully diminished.”

Science Nature Discovery Advantage Labor Mathematics Math Physics Symbols Mathematical

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“Every mind has a horizon in respect to its present intellectual capacity but not in respect to its future intellectual capacity.”

Mind Intellectual Capacity Horizon

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion more interesting than the inventions themselves.”

Important Interesting Opinion Source Mathematics Math Invention Mathematical

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“The art of discovering the causes of phenomena, or true hypotheses, is like the art of deciphering, in which an ingenious conjecture often greatly shortens the road.”

Art Causes Mathematics Math Mathematical Discovering Hypothesis Ingenious Conjecture

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“To love is to be delighted by the happiness of someone, or to experience pleasure upon the happiness of another. I define this as true love.”

Love Is Pleasure Delighted

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“The 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.”

Knows Needs Able Order Ought Shops Inventory

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“The present is great with the future.”

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“Nihil est sine ratione. There is nothing without a reason.”

Reason

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“Our reasonings are grounded upon two great principles, that of contradiction, in virtue of which we judge false that which involves a contradiction, and true that which is opposed or contradictory to the false.”

Two Science Principles Virtue Judging Reasoning Contradiction Grounded Contradictory

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“One 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.”

Science Term Evident Defining Dictionary

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

About the Author

Born: July 1, 1646
Died: November 14, 1716
Known for: Mathematician
Quotes: 120

Books & Sources

Leibniz: Philosophical EssaysRelated source material

Discourse on Metaphysics and the MonadologyRelated source material

Leibniz: Political WritingsRelated source material

New Essays Concerning Human Understanding with an Appealing...: Transtated from the Original Latin, French and German WriteenRelated source material

ProtogaeaRelated source material

The Rationalists: Descartes: Discourse on Method & Meditations; Spinoza: Ethics; Leibniz: Monadolo gy & Discourse on MetaphysicsRelated source material

The monadology and other philosophical writingsRelated source material

The philosophical works of Leibnitz .Related source material

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