D'Alembert was always surrounded by controversy. ... he was the lightning rod which drew sparks from all the foes of the philosophes. ... Unfortunately he carried this... pugnacity into his scientific research and once he had entered a controversy, he… — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
Geometry, which should only obey Physics, when united with it sometimes commands it. If it happens that the question which we wish to examine is too complicated for all the elements to be able to enter into the analytical comparison we wish to make, we separate the more inconvenient [elements], we substitute others for them, less troublesome but also less… — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share
One magnitude is said to be the limit of another magnitude when the second may approach the first within any given magnitude, however small,… — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
Algebra is generous; she often gives more than is asked of her. — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
The true system of the World has been recognized, developed and perfected...Everything has been discussed and analysed, or at least mentioned. — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
High office, is like a pyramid; only two kinds of animals reach the summit — reptiles and eagles. — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
If one looks at all closely at the middle of our own century, the events that occupy us, our customs, our achievements and even our topics of conversation, it is difficult not to see that a very remarkable change in several respects has come into our ideas; a change which, by its rapidity, seems to us to foreshadow another still… — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share
In England it was enough that Newton was the greatest mathematican of his century; in France he would have been expected to be agreeable… — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
“In effect, what is a courtier? He is a man whom the misfortune of kings and people has placed betwixt the sovereign and truth… — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
Just go on . . . and faith will soon return. To a friend hesitant with respect to infinitesimals. — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
A philosopher is a fool who torments himself while he is alive, to be talked of after he is dead. — Jean le Rond d'Alembert Copy Share Image
