Pierre-Simon Laplace

"In the end, all knowledge returns to this: that we know far less than we suppose."

"The only permanent thing in life is the principle of change itself."

"Beauty is truth's expression in the language of the senses."

"To be alive is to be forever changed by the forces of time and circumstance."

"The grateful heart finds abundance even in scarcity."

"The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to the strangeness of the claim itself."

"I had no need of that hypothesis."

"What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense."

"The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the previous moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence which at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respectiveposition, motion, and general affect of every entity at any time in the past or future."

"Probability is relative, in part to this ignorance, in part to our knowledge."

"Man owes his greatest debts to those who have corrected his errors."

"Scientific truth is beyond the reach of the passions of men."

"The simplest hypotheses are the best when all things are equal."

"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security."

"We see that the theory of probabilities is at bottom only common sense reduced to calculation."

"The span of life is desultory; few attain old age, and fewer still maintain their faculties unimpaired."

"A mathematical mind has always been something noble and worthy of respect."

"It is remarkable that a science which began with the consideration of games of chance should have become the most important object of human knowledge."

"How did the universe begin? This is perhaps the deepest question we can ask."

"All the effects of nature are only the mathematical consequences of a small number of immutable laws."

"The true method of philosophy rests on the observation of phenomena."

"Those who cultivate the sciences gain by them a certain tranquility and serenity of mind."

"Genius is patience."

"The mind that has once perceived the magnitude of the universe can never return to the smallness of petty thoughts."

"I am convinced that institutions of learning should gently guide students toward truth, not impose it upon them."

"The greatest source of error is always our own ignorance."

"Time and patience can accomplish nearly everything."

"The laws of nature are the product of divine intelligence."

"To understand the world, one must understand the mathematics underlying it."

"Ignorance of nature is ignorance of the causes of phenomena."