Isaac Newton

English mathematician and physicist, 1643–1727. 1 explained quote.

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

Isaac Newton · 1676

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

Isaac Newton · Letter to Robert Hooke · 1676 · Scientist

Newton credits earlier scientists for making his discoveries possible. He borrowed the image of dwarfs on giants' shoulders from medieval scholars.

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About Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton described the laws of motion and universal gravitation in his Principia of 1687, developed calculus at the same time as Gottfried Leibniz, and showed that white light is made of a spectrum of colors.

He was also famously prickly, and spent years in bitter disputes with rivals, including Robert Hooke and Leibniz.

More lines by Newton

Short quotes checked against their sources.

“Hypotheses non fingo. (I frame no hypotheses.)”
Principia, General Scholium, second edition, 1713