Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Sir Isaac Newton was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, achieved the first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating infinitesimal calculus, although he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science.

Quotes

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore and diverting himself and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell that ordinary while the greater ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Did blind chance know that there was light and what was its refraction, and fit the eyes of all creatures after the most curious manner to make use of it? These and other suchlike considerations, always have, and always will prevail with mankind, to believe that there is a Being who made all things, who has all things in his power, and who is therefore to be feared.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Knowledge
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.

Discovery, Miscellaneous, Patience
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

Enemies
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Discovery, Knowledge
I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light.

Science
This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.

God
We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

Miscellaneous
No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.

Risk
A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

Truth & Lies
To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science.

Science
If I am anything, which I highly doubt, I have made myself so by hard work.

Work