We are so far from knowing all the forces of nature and their various modes of action that it would be unworthy of the philosopher to deny phenomena simply because they are inexplicable at the present state of our knowledge.… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
It is interesting thus to follow the intellectual truths of analysis in the phenomena of nature. This correspondence, of which the system of the… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
“L'homme ne poursuit que des chimères. ( Man follows only phantoms .) { His true last words, according to Augustus De Morgan .}” — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
Such is the advantage of a well constructed language that its simplified notation often becomes the source of profound theories. — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
Napoleon: You have written this huge book on the system of the world without once mentioning the author of the universe. Laplace: Sire, I… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness. — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
“...by shortening the labours doubled the life of the astronomer. { On the benefit of John Napier 's logarithms .}” — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
To Napoleon on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God: Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis. — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
We are so far from knowing all the forces of nature and their various modes of action that it would be unworthy of the… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
If an event can be produced by a number n of different causes, the probabilities of the existence of these causes, given the event (prises de l'événement), are to each other as the probabilities of the event, given the causes: and the probability of each cause is equal to the probability of the event, given that cause, divided by the… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share
The word 'chance' then expresses only our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena that we observe to occur and to succeed one another… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to follow their motions up to a certain point; and in order to determine the state of the system of these great bodies in past or future centuries, it suffices for the mathematician that their position and their velocity… — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share
His last words, according to De Morgan: Man follows only phantoms. — Pierre-Simon Laplace Copy Share Image
