Sourced and curated.

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Principia · 1687

★ 7.5

Letter

1676

★ 7.4

Moreover, in a system of two bodies mutually acting upon each other, since the differences between their centres and the common centre of gravity of both are reciprocally as the bodies, the relative motions of those bodies, whether of approaching to or of receding from that centre, will be equal junong themselves. Therefore since the changes which happen to motions are equal and directed to contrary parts.

Principia · 1687

★ 7.3

Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.

God in the Beginning form'd Matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable Particles, of such Sizes and Figures, and with such other Properties, and in such Proportion to Space, as most conduced to the End for which he form'd them.

1850

★ 7.0

Treatise · Scientific literature

Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light · 1704

★ 5.4

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

Poems · 1842

★ 5.4

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.

Poems · 1842

★ 5.4

Speech · Political speech

They are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.

1965

★ 5.4

Interview

1987

★ 5.3

The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.

Principia · 1687

★ 4.8

This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being... This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont, to be called Lord God παντοκρατωρ or Universal Ruler.

Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.

Principia · 1713

★ 3.9

Pennies don't fall from heaven, they have to be earned here on earth.

1702

★ 3.8

Whence is it that Nature does nothing in vain: and whence arises all that Order and Beauty which we see in the World?... does it not appear from Phenomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who in infinite Space, as it were in his Sensory, sees the things themselves intimately, and throughly perceives them, and comprehends them wholly.

1979

★ 3.8

Treatise · Scientific literature

Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light · 1704

★ 3.7

That which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Poems · 1842

★ 3.6

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, - To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! As tho' to breathe were life.

Poems · 1842

★ 3.6

Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns.

Poems · 1842

★ 3.6

I sometimes hold it half a sin To put in words the grief I feel; For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the Soul within.

In Memoriam A.H.H. · 1850

★ 3.6

But, friend, to me He is all fault who hath no fault at all: For who loves me must have a touch of earth.

Idylls of the King · 1859

★ 3.6

Fair face show friends When riches do abound: Come time of proof, Farewell, they must away.

Barnabe Googe

1563

★ 3.5

Hymn · Song

Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled! Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies; With th' angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Charles Wesley

Hymn for Christmas-Day · 1739

★ 3.5

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.

The Princess · 1847

★ 3.5

Man for the field and woman for the hearth: Man for the sword and for the needle she: Man with the head and woman with the heart: Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion.

In my lifetime, all the problems have come mainland Europe, and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world.

The Princess · 1847

★ 3.5

Speech · Political speech

1999

★ 2.9

Errors are not in the art, but in the artificers.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

Principia · 1687

★ 2.4

Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

1680

★ 2.1

Hymn · Song

Charles Wesley

1738

★ 2.0

Ah, why Should life all labor be?

Poems · 1832

★ 2.0

Man is the hunter; woman is his game.

The Princess · 1847

★ 2.0

O Sorrow, wilt thou live with me No casual mistress, but a wife.

In Memoriam A.H.H. · 1850

★ 2.0

Love is and was my Lord and King.

In Memoriam A.H.H. · 1850

★ 2.0

He makes no friend who never made a foe.

Idylls of the King · 1859

★ 2.0

Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt.

No-one would remember the good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

1885

★ 2.0

Interview

We must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.

1980

★ 2.0

Speech · Political speech

1985

★ 2.0

Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honour'd of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met.

Poems · 1842

★ 1.9

There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.

In Memoriam A.H.H. · 1850

★ 1.9

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

1850

★ 1.9

1664

★ 1.3

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power.