"It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter without mutual contact, as it must be, if gravitation in the sense of Epicurus, be essential and inherent in it. And this is one reason why I desired you would not ascribe innate gravity to me. That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left open to the consideration of my readers."
React to this quote
More by Isaac Newton
See allResonant Thoughts
"I have invented a new series of verses, verses without words, or sound poems, in which the balancing of the vowels is gauged and distributed according to the value of the initial line.. .With these so…"
"What madman, or what clever-dick with the instincts of a counterfeiter was the first to paint a sphere in trompe l'oeil on a surface that is vertical and rigorously flat! And that's what they teach at…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"The absolute superiority of India over the West in philosophy; poetry from the Mahabharata, containing the …"
— Hermann von Keyserling"But fie on these unanswered queries and fie on those who pose them. There are stories to be written, drinks…"
— Hunter S. Thompson"The reproduction of labour power thus reveals as its sine qua non not only the reproduction of its ‘skills’…"
— Louis Althusser"After all, to the truly skeptical mind, diabolic forces are just as reasonable building blocks for the cosm…"
— Fritz Leiber"I welcome the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Countrymen had expected and yearned for this. Cons…"
— Kamal Nath"Between the finite and the infinite The missing link of Love has left a void. Supply the link, and earth wi…"
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Related Thinkers
Related Topics
Deep Dives
- Leonardo da Vinci on philosophy
- Blaise Pascal on philosophy
- Nicholas of Cusa on philosophy
- Kenneth Arrow on philosophy
- Charles Babbage on philosophy
- John Wallis on philosophy
- William A. Dembski on philosophy
- Leonardo da Vinci on life
- Leonardo da Vinci on nature
- Leonardo da Vinci on art
- knowledge & Beauty
- knowledge & Change
