Pierre-Simon Laplace

"The simplest method is the best."

"Nothing is certain but what is measured."

"In the sciences there are no shortcuts to truth."

"Nature never deceives us; it is only we who deceive ourselves."

"The perfection of mathematical science is nearly allied with its application to the real world."

"It is the remarkable providence of God that order and beauty spring from confusion."

"The vast edifice of natural science is a monument to man's ability to observe and reason."

"Who can deny that among the phenomena of nature are some the most wonderful and inexplicable?"

"Nature presents to us an infinite complication."

"The intellectual power of man increases day by day."

"A true system must be consonant with all the phenomena of nature."

"The method of approximation is at the root of all the sciences."

"It is by the aid of analysis that we pierce the veil which hides the mysteries of nature."

"Philosophy consists in understanding the succession of phenomena."

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."

"We lack a power of discerning the true relations between facts."

"Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises."

"In general the greater the number of equations, the more we are able to determine the unknown quantities."

"The true spirit of discovery consists in seeing what no one has seen before, while thinking as everyone else thinks."

"Nature speaks to us in a mathematical voice."

"All sciences have relations to the applications of analysis."

"The simplicity of nature is not that of emptiness but that of unity in multiplicity."

"We must be able to assume everything as possible."

"The highest perfection of man is to act from duty."

"Understanding nature requires the marriage of observation and reason."

"An intelligent being who knew all the forces acting in nature at a given instant could compute the future."

"The mathematical spirit is the greatest enemy of superstition."

"Nature is the most refined of all calculators."

"The laws of nature are the thoughts of God."

"We should extend our researches as far as science can reach."