“We never have a full demonstration, although there is always an underlying reason for the truth, even if it is only perfectly understood by God, who alone penetrated the infinite series in one stroke of the mind.” IfsMindReasonUnderstoodInfiniteSeriesStrokesDemonstration Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“For, above all, I hold a notion of possibility and necessity according to which there are some things that are possible, but yet not necessary, and which do not really exist. From this it follows that a reason that always forces a free mind to choose one thing over another (whether that reason derives from the perfection of a thing, as it does in God, or from our imperfection) does not eliminate our freedom.” MindDoeReasonForceOne ThingPossibilityPerfectionNotionImperfection Book:Leibniz: Philosophical Essays Source: Leibniz: Philosophical Essays
“Now, as there is an infinity of possible universes in the Ideas of God, and as only one of them can exist, there must be a sufficient reason for God's choice, which determines him toward one rather than another. And this reason can be found only in the fitness, or the degrees of perfection, that these worlds contain, since each possible thing has the right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection it involves.” WorldIdeasReasonChoicesUniverseFoundExistenceDegreesPerfectionClaimsDetermineSufficientProportionInfinity Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“There are two famous labyrinths where our reason very often goes astray. One concerns the great question of the free and the necessary, above all in the production and the origin of Evil. The other consists in the discussion of continuity, and of the indivisibles which appear to be the elements thereof, and where the consideration of the infinite must enter in.” TwoReasonEvilElementsConcernInfiniteProductionsDiscussionConsiderationContinuityLabyrinth Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“There are also two kinds of truths, those of reasoning and those of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible, and those of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible. When a truth is necessary its reason can be found by analysis, resolving it into more simple ideas and truths until we reach those which are primitive.” KindTwoIdeasReasonFactsScienceFoundSimpleImpossibleTruth IsOppositesPrimariesAnalysisReasoningSimple Ideas Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“It is God who is the ultimate reason things, and the Knowledge of God is no less the beginning of science than his essence and will are the beginning of things.” ReasonGodScienceEssenceUltimateAccountsKnowledge Of God Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“Although the whole of this life were said to be nothing but a dream and the physical world nothing but a phantasm, I should call this dream or phantasm real enough, if, using reason well, we were never deceived by it.” IfsWorldLifeShouldWellsSaidRealReasonEnoughWholeDreamMathematicsMathThis LifeMathematicalDeceived Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“I hold that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is in fact in nature.” IdeasReasonFactsCausesTeachPossibilityWords Of WisdomMarkGenuineConceiving Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“But 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.” GivingMindSoulReasonAnimalWords Of WisdomEternalMereRational Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“When a truth is necessary, the reason for it can be found by analysis, that is, by resolving it into simpler ideas and truths until the primary ones are reached. It is this way that in mathematics speculative theorems and practical canons are reduced by analysis to definitions, axioms and postulates.” WayIdeasReasonFoundWords Of WisdomTruth IsMathematicsDefinitionsPracticalsPrimariesAnalysisAxiomsTheoremsCanon Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“..This is why the ultimate reason of things must lie in a necessary substance, in which the differentiation of the changes only exists eminently as in their source; and this is what we call God.” ReasonLyingSourceWords Of WisdomUltimateSubstanceWord Of GodDifferentiation Author:Gottfried Leibniz
