"Principia" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of three years can follow the reasonings of Newton's 'Principia.' I do not even pretend that I can appreciate the work of a great master as a born and trained musician does. Still, I do love a great crash of harmonies, and the oftener I listen to these musical tempests the higher my soul seems to ride upon them, as the wild fowl I see through my window soar ...
— Over the Teacups • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... Latin Bacon naturally composed his "Novum Organum" and indeed almost all his scientific and philosophical work, although a central figure of his age among English prose-writers. In Latin, in the eighteenth century, Newton wrote his "Principia": and I suppose that of no two books written by Englishmen before the close of that century, or indeed before Darwin's "Origin of Species," can it be less extravagantly said than of the "Novum Organum" and ...
— On the Art of Writing - Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914 • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... the second rank)—Ver. 780. "Post principia." The Captain, with that discretion which is the better part of valor, chooses the safest place in his army. The "principes" originally fought in the van, fronting the enemy, and behind them were the "hastati" and the "triarii." In later times the "hastati" faced ...
— The Comedies of Terence - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes • Publius Terentius Afer, (AKA) Terence
... mean to say a kid like you's in the Second Principia already?" said a big girl, and held up, incredulously, Smith's black and red boards. "Wherever did ...
— The Getting of Wisdom • Henry Handel Richardson
... to envy the freedom of the Philosophers. Liberis verbis loquuntur philosophi.... Nos autem non dicimus duo vel tria principia, duos vel tres Deos. ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon
... suitably clothed in the language of real life, and thus fitted for access to the general intelligence, constitutes true literature, to the exclusion of that which, by its nature or by its expression, appeals only to a special class or school. The 'Opus Anglicanum' of Duns Scotus, Newton's 'Principia,' Lavoisier's treatise 'Sur la Combustion,' Kant's 'Kritik der Reinen Vernunft' (Critique of Pure Reason), each made an epoch in some vast domain of knowledge or belief; but none of them is literature. ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... minus, learn'd the use, Known Quantities from unknown to educe; And made—no doubt to that old dame's surprise— The Christ-Cross-Row his ladder to the skies. Yet, whatsoe'er Geometricians say, Her lessons were his true PRINCIPIA! ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb
... the prelates had just solemnly decreed, as Abbe Bruslart informs us (Mem. de Conde, i. 52): "Non erat congrediendum cum his qui principia et fundamentum totius nostrae fidei et religionis christianae negant." Not only so; but they had protested against the heretics being heard, and had declared that whoever conferred with them would be excommunicated! "Disants ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird
... Behind the front line—Post principia. The principia are the same as those mentioned in the preceding note, that is, the front line when the army faced that of Jugurtha on the hill, but which presented its flank to the enemy when the army was on its march. So that Marius commanded in the center ("in medio ...
— Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War • Sallust
... been revealed to each." The same night it was revealed to Andrew, one of the Apostles, that John should write down everything in his own name, and all should certify (ut recognoscentibus cunctis Johannes suo nomine cuncta describeret). And therefore, although various elements (principia) are taught in the several books of the Gospels, yet it makes no difference to the faith of the believer, since all things in all of them are declared by one Supreme Spirit, concerning the nativity, the passion, the resurrection, His intercourse ...
— Essays on "Supernatural Religion" • Joseph B. Lightfoot
... eximia divinaque videntur Athenae tuae peperisse, atque in vitam hominum attulisse; tum nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus ex agresti immanique vita, exculti ad humanitatem et mitigati sumus, initiaque ut appellautur, ita re vera principia vitae cognovimus. Cic. 1. ...
— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin
... qui duo principia sibi coaeterna et aduersa profitentur, unigenitum dei esse non credunt. Indignum enim iudicant, si deus habere filium uideatur, nihil aliud cogitantes nisi carnaliter, ut quia haec generatio duorum corporum ...
— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
... quidam loquebatur cum eo, ut frater Leo refert, de capitulo paupertatis," f^o 13a, cf. Spec., 9a, "S. Franciscus, teste fr. Leone, frequenter et cum multo studio recitabat fabulam ... quod oportebat finaliter ordinem humiliari et ad sue humilitatis principia confitenda et tenenda reduci." Archiv., ii., ...
— Life of St. Francis of Assisi • Paul Sabatier
... incunabilis [Lat.], ab origine [Lat.]. Phr. let's get going!, let's get this show on the road!, up and at 'em!; aller Anfang ist schwer [G.], dimidium facti qui coepit habet [Lat.] [Cicero]; omnium rerum principia parva ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... incomparable sagacity of its author the Principia contained merely a rough outline of the planetary perturbations. If this sublime sketch did not become a complete portrait we must not attribute the circumstance to any want of ardour or perseverance; the efforts of the great philosopher were always superhuman, the questions ...
— Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men • Francois Arago
... born near London; determined the rotation of the sun from the spots on its surface, and the position of 350 stars; discovered in 1680 the great comet called after his name, which appeared again in 1825; was entrusted with the publication of his "Principia" by Sir Isaac Newton; made researches on the orbits of comets, and was appointed in 1719 ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... ability it has given him to recognize its little avail, he will thus disparage it only in the spirit in which a more advanced student of an earlier day, looking back upon the stupendous revelations of his "Principia," likened them to so many pebbles or shells picked up on the shore of the illimitable ...
— The Booklover and His Books • Harry Lyman Koopman
... fittest, no continuous adaptation to changing surroundings, no diversification and improvement, leading from lower up to higher and nobler forms. So the most puzzling things of all to the old-school teleologists are the principia of the Darwinian. In this system the forms and species, in all their variety, are not mere ends in themselves, but the whole a series of means and ends, in the contemplation of which we may obtain higher and more comprehensive, ...
— Darwiniana - Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism • Asa Gray
... the rules of philosophy, and even of common reason; where any principle has been found to have a great force and energy in one instance, to ascribe to it a like energy in all similar instances. This indeed is Newton's chief rule of philosophizing [Footnote: Principia. ...
— An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals • David Hume
... Abbey there repose, almost side by side, by no conscious design yet with deep significance, the mortal remains of Isaac Newton and of Charles Darwin. "'The Origin of Species,'" said Wallace, "will live as long as the 'Principia' of Newton." Near by are the tombs of Sir John Herschel, Lord Kelvin and Sir Charles Lyell; and the medallions in memory of Joule, Darwin, Stokes and Adams have been rearranged so as to admit similar memorials of Lister, Hooker and Alfred ...
— Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Marchant
... pecudum miranda tueri More nec effusis in humum grave pascere corpus; Nosse fidem rerum dubiasque exquirere causas, Ingenium sacrare caputque attollere caelo, Scire quot et quae sint magno fatalia mundo Principia. ...
— Vergil - A Biography • Tenney Frank
... Nieuwentijt (1654-1718), a physician and burgomaster at Purmerend. His Considerationes circa Analyseos ad quantitates infinite parvas applicatae Principia et Calculi Differentialis usum (Amsterdam, 1694) was attacked by Leibnitz. He replied in his Considerationes secundae (1694), and also wrote the Analysis Infinitorum, seu Curvilineorum Proprietates ex Polygonorum Natura deductae (1695). His most famous ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) • Augustus de Morgan
... her concluido jeriayer: abora principia el trabajo: Tengo benho un monton de papel acombroso. El menester reducirlo a la mitad y eso so hara castratandolo de lo bueno duro y particolar ...
— George Borrow and His Circle - Wherein May Be Found Many Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of - Borrow And His Friends • Clement King Shorter
... Elston, and died there at the age of ninety-two, a bachelor. He had a strong taste for poetry, like his youngest brother Erasmus. Robert also cultivated botany, and, when an oldish man, he published his 'Principia Botanica.' This book in MS. was beautifully written, and my father [Dr. R.W. Darwin] declared that he believed it was published because his old uncle could not endure that such fine caligraphy should be wasted. But this was hardly just, as the work ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin
... most important event in the whole history of physical astronomy was the publication, in 1687, of Newton's Principia (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica). In this great work Newton started from the beginning of things, the laws of motion, and carried his argument, step by step, into every branch of physical astronomy; giving the physical meaning of Kepler's three laws, and explaining, or indicating the explanation ...
— History of Astronomy • George Forbes
... before. I inquired of him regarding Mr. Joss,—one of perhaps the most remarkable mail-guards in Europe. I have at least never heard of another who, like him, amuses his leisure on the coach-top with the "Principia" of Newton, and understands it. And the man, drawing his inference from the interest in Mr. Joss which my queries evinced, asked me whether I myself was not a coach-guard. "No," I rather thoughtlessly replied, ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller
... la sala de clase. El va a su banco y se sienta. Suena la campanilla y principia la leccion de espanol. El maestro pregunta. El discipulo se levanta y responde. El se sienta, abre su libro y lee una frase, dos frases. El cierra su libro y repite las frases. El habla alto y distintamente. ...
— A First Spanish Reader • Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy
... By this time I had studied plane and spherical trigonometry, conic sections, and Fergusson's "Astronomy." I think it was immediately after my return to Scotland that I attempted to read Newton's "Principia." I found it extremely difficult, and certainly did not understand it till I returned to it some time after, when I studied that wonderful work with great assiduity, and wrote numerous notes and observations on it. I obtained ...
— Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville • Mary Somerville
... heavenly bodies must experience numerous, considerable, perpetually changing perturbations. To discover a few of these perturbations, and to assign their nature and in a few rare cases their numerical value, was the object which Newton proposed to himself in writing his famous book, the 'Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis' [Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy], Notwithstanding the incomparable sagacity of its author, the 'Principia' contained merely a rough outline of planetary perturbations, though not through any lack of ardor or perseverance. ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner
... stole it from somebody else. Of ancient writers, there are few except Hannibal (who used it on crossing the Alps) and Julius Caesar, that notice it. Bacon treats of the instrument in his "Novum Organum;" from which Newton cabbaged his ideas in his "Principia," in the most unprincipled manner. The thermometer remained stationary till the time of Robinson Crusoe, who clearly suggested, if he did not invent the register, now universally adopted, which so ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, August 14, 1841 • Various
... scientiis aliquid solatii carpere fas esset, secumque perituris delectari: sed in hoc tam exiguo vit curriculo, et tam brevi, quid est, tam cito periturum, quod impleret animum, in infinita sculorum spatia duraturum? Sola Theologi principia, tern felicitatis certissima expectatione foeta, aur divin particulam, coelestis su originis consciam, et sempitern beatitudinis ...
— Inspiration and Interpretation - Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford • John Burgon
... the entire life of man, and picture every possible aspect of humanity, in a hundred books to be known as "La Comedie Humaine." It was a conception as great and daring as the plan of Pliny to write out all human knowledge, or the ambition of Newton as shown in the "Principia," or the works of Baron von Humboldt as revealed in the "Cosmos," or the idea of Herbert Spencer as bodied forth ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers • Elbert Hubbard
... during his lifetime. Besides the "Discourse on Method" (1637), with the treatises on dioptrics, meteors, and geometry, his principal works were his "Meditations" addressed to the Deans of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Paris; the "Principia Philosophiae," and the "Traite des Passions de L'Ame," in which, he handled morals. Descartes died at Stockholm, whither he had been summoned by Queen Christina, on February 11, 1649. His work stands a landmark in the modern ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various
... with good will doe the best I can: But I thinke it the difficiller, since ye denie the thing it selfe in generall: for as it is said in the logick schools, Contra negantem principia non est disputandum. Alwaies for that part, that witchcraft, and Witches haue bene, and are, the former part is clearelie proved by the Scriptures, and the last by dailie experience ...
— Daemonologie. • King James I
... best be led to the true knowledge of God and of the Mediator Christ, is hard to say. I cannot myself wonder enough who it is that has imposed so much upon your Reverence and many others in the Fatherland, concerning the docility of these people and their good nature, the proper principia religionis and vestigia legis naturae which are said to be among them; in whom I have as yet been able to discover hardly a single good point, except that they do not speak so jeeringly and so scoffingly of the godlike and glorious majesty of their Creator as the Africans dare to do. ...
— Narrative of New Netherland • J. F. Jameson, Editor
... early as 1666; but the erroneous estimate which was then generally received of the earth's diameter prevented him from disclosing it for sixteen years; and it was not till 1687, on the eve of the Revolution, that the "Principia" revealed to the world his new theory of ...
— History of the English People, Volume VI (of 8) - Puritan England, 1642-1660; The Revolution, 1660-1683 • John Richard Green
... speculations of Adam Smith. A short cut has been made to much knowledge at which Sir Isaac Newton arrived through arduous and circuitous paths. Yet we still look with peculiar veneration on the Wealth of Nations and on the Principia, and should regret to see either of those great works garbled even by the ablest hands. But in works which owe much of their interest to the character and situation of the writers, the case is infinitely stronger. What man of ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... Calvisius Sabinus, upon his first campaign, he brought his commander's wife, a licentious woman, in a soldier's dress, by night into the camp, and was found with her in the very general's quarters, the principia, as the Romans call them. For which insolence Caius Caesar cast him into prison, from whence he was fortunately delivered by Caius's death. Afterwards, being invited by Claudius Caesar to supper, he privily conveyed ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... attention which the Short-Hair or "plain blunt man" reserves for reflection on the graver concerns of life, and especially on the elevation of his fellow-men, and this presumption even a career of philanthropy and the composition of the "Principia" would not in many minds suffice to overthrow. We believe it is authentic that General Grant never got over the impression produced on him by seeing that Mr. Motley parted his hair in the middle, and it is said—and if not true is not unlikely,—that ...
— Reflections and Comments 1865-1895 • Edwin Lawrence Godkin
... apparent. Sixty years after Bacon's death, Newton had crowned the long labors of the astronomers and the physicists, by coordinating the phenomena of solar motion throughout the visible universe into one vast system; but the 'Principia' helped no man to either wealth or comfort. Descartes, Newton, and Leibnitz had opened up new worlds to the mathematician, but the acquisitions of their genius enriched only man's ideal estate. Descartes had laid the foundations of rational cosmogony and of physiological psychology; Boyle had produced ...
— The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century • T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley
... yet uninitiated into the elementary principia of the languages; well—the honor is still ...
— The Poor Scholar - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton
... commerce, the exchange of commodities, banking, and whatever relates to it, currency, the rise and fall of prices, the rates of profits, are all subject to laws as universal and unerring as those which Newton deduces in the "Principia," or Donald McKay applies in the construction of a clipper ship. As they are manifested by more complicated phenomena, man may not know them as accurately as he knows the laws of astronomy or mechanics; but he can no more ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... fundamental distinctions ever made in philosophy; the distinction between action and passion, between mind and matter. Matter is passive, mind is active. The very first law of motion laid down in the Principia, a work so much admired by M. Comte and Mr. Mill, is based on the idea that matter is wholly inert, and destitute of power either to move itself, or to check itself when moved by anything ab extra. This ...
— A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory • Albert Taylor Bledsoe
... popularized by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's novel "{Illuminatus!}" as a sort of self-subverting Dada-Zen for Westerners — it should on no account be taken seriously but is far more serious than most jokes. Consider, for example, the Fifth Commandment of the Pentabarf, from "Principia Discordia": "A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he Reads." Discordianism is usually connected with an elaborate conspiracy theory/joke involving millennia-long warfare between the anarcho-surrealist ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0
... Improvement of Natural History." As time went on, and the various branches of human knowledge became more distinctly developed and separated from one another, it was found that some were much more susceptible of precise mathematical treatment than others. The publication of the "Principia" of Newton, which probably gave a greater stimulus to physical science than any work ever published before, or which is likely to be published hereafter, showed that precise mathematical methods were applicable to those branches of science such as astronomy, ...
— Science & Education • Thomas H. Huxley
... those who doubt his faith in God And man's immortal destiny, there remains The granite monument of his own great work, That dark cathedral of man's intellect, The vast "Principia," pointing to the skies, Wherein our intellectual king proclaimed The task of science,—through this wilderness Of Time and Space and false appearances, To make the path straight from effect to cause, Until we come to that First Cause of all, The Power, above, beyond the blind machine, The Primal ...
— Watchers of the Sky • Alfred Noyes
... of necessitie, almost, next adioyning, to the heauenly motions: That, from thence, all his vertue or force may be gouerned. For, that is to be thought the first Cause vnto all: from which, the beginning of motion, is. And againe, in the tenth Chapter. Oportet igitur & horum principia sumamus, & causas omnium similiter. Principium igitur vt mouens, praecipuum[que] & omnium primum, Circulus ille est, in quo manifeste Solis latio, &c. And so forth. His Meteorologicall bookes, are full of argumentes, and effectuall demonstrations, of the ...
— The Mathematicall Praeface to Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara • John Dee
... Species"—and whatever may be thought or said about Mr. Darwin's doctrines, or the manner in which he has propounded them, this much is certain, that, in a dozen years, the "Origin of Species" has worked as complete a revolution in biological science as the "Principia" did in astronomy—and it has done so, because, in the words of Helmholtz, it contains "an ...
— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley
... axis in a way that accounted for the phenomenon which had been known but had never been explained for two thousand years. All these discoveries were brought together in that immortal work, Newton's "Principia." ...
— Great Astronomers • R. S. Ball
... Principia et Problemata aliquot Geometrica ante desperata, nunc breviter explicata & demonstrata, London ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume II • Theophilus Cibber
... essent in re, comprehenderet, sed quia nihil quod cadere in eam posset relinqueret quodque natura quasi normam scientiae et principium sui dedisset, unde postea notiones rerum in animis imprimerentur, e quibus non principia solum, sed latiores quaedam ad rationem inveniendam viae reperiuntur. Errorem autem et temeritatem et ignorantiam et opinationem et suspicionem et uno nomine omnia, quae essent aliena firmae et constantis adsensionis, a virtute sapientiaque removebat. Atque in his fere commutatio constitit ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... Nulla res consummata est dum incipit. Nec in hac tantum re omnium maxima ac involutissima, in qua etiam cum multum actum erit, omnis aetas, quod agat inveniet; sed in omni alio Negotio, longe semper a perfecto fuere Principia. ...
— Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) • Robert Boyle
... the last quarter of a century is sufficient to justify the assertion, that the most potent instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowledge which has come into men's hands, since the publication of Newton's 'Principia,' is Darwin's 'Origin ...
— The Reception of the 'Origin of Species' • Thomas Henry Huxley
... churched, and we receyved the communion. John Carpe browght his wife from Prage to Trebona. April 17th, Doctor Reinholt cam to Trebona. April 22nd, nocte hora 9 terribilis et falsa accusatio vel suspicio, quod Puccia annunciavit contra D. K. et ipsum principia (?). May 1st, Mr. Carpio rid to my Lord to the holy well at the glass hows, four myles from Trebona, with my letters of purgation for Puccies his attempts or intents in his letters to my bond and Mr. Kelly, unknown to ...
— The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee - And the Catalog of His Library of Manuscripts • John Dee |
