Gottfried Leibniz Quotes
1646–1716 Germany
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1 July 1646 {21 June O.S.} – 14 November 1716) was a German philosopher and mathematician.
- Germany
- Academics
- Logicians
- Mathematicians
- Non-fiction authors
Also known as: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Leibniz, Wilhelm Leibniz, Leibnitz, Liebniz
Random Gottfried Leibniz quote
31 quotes
In whatever manner God created the world, it would always have been regular and in a certain general order. God, however, has chosen the most perfect, that is to say, the one which is at the same time the simplest in hypothesis and the richest in phenomena.
Aside from the human reasons for faith, or motives of credibility, a certain internal operation of the Holy Spirit is required which gives it the name Divine Faith and which confirms the mind in truth.
It may be said that not only the soul, the mirror of an indestructible universe, is indestructible, but also the animal itself, though its mechanism may often perish in part and take off or put on an organic slough.
La monadologie (1714)
Theologian: But what is to love?
Philosopher: To be delighted by the happiness of another.
Confessio philosophi (1673)
Thus it may be said that not only the soul, the mirror of an indestructible universe, is indestructible, but also the animal itself, though its mechanism may often perish in part and take off or put on an organic slough.
The Monadology (1714)
Only geometry can hand us the thread [which will lead us through] the labyrinth of the continuum’s composition, the maximum and the minimum, the infinitesimal and the infinite; and no one will arrive at a truly solid metaphysic except he who has passed through this [labyrinth].
As there are an infinity of possible worlds, there are also an infinity of laws, certain ones appropriate to one; others, to another, and each possible individual of any world involves in its concept the laws of its world.
Nature does not make leaps.
Avant-propos to Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain (1704)
...the entire universe was there within a grain for our understanding.
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.
Théodicée (1710)
It is an extremely useful thing to have knowledge of the true origins of memorable discoveries, especially those that have been found not by accident but by dint of meditation. It is not so much that thereby history may attribute to each man his own discoveries and others should be encouraged to earn like commendation, as that the art of making discoveries should be extended by considering noteworthy examples of it.
Opening paragraph of Historia et Origo Calculi Differentialis (1714)