Pierre-Simon Laplace

It is interesting thus to follow the intellectual truths of analysis in the phenomena of nature. This correspondence, of which the system…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

“L'homme ne poursuit que des chimères. ( Man follows only phantoms .) { His true last words, according to Augustus De Morgan .}”

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Such is the advantage of a well constructed language that its simplified notation often becomes the source of profound theories.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Napoleon: You have written this huge book on the system of the world without once mentioning the author of the universe. Laplace:…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

“...by shortening the labours doubled the life of the astronomer. { On the benefit of John Napier 's logarithms .}”

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

To Napoleon on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God: Your Highness, I have no need of this…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

We are so far from knowing all the forces of nature and their various modes of action that it would be unworthy…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

If an event can be produced by a number n of different causes, the probabilities of the existence of these causes, given…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

The word 'chance' then expresses only our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena that we observe to occur and to succeed…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

His last words, according to De Morgan: Man follows only phantoms.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

The most important questions of life are indeed, for the most part, really only problems of probability.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Man follows only phantoms.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

The simplicity of nature is not to be measured by that of our conceptions. Infinitely varied in its effects, nature is simple…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Nature laughs at the difficulties of integration.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

“Read Euler , read Euler , he is the master of us all.”

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

[Science] dissipates errors born of ignorance about our true relations with nature, errors the more damaging in that the social order should…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Truth and justice are the immutable laws of social order.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Probability theory is nothing but common sense reduced to calculation.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

I see with much pleasure that you are working on a large work on the integral Calculus [ ... ] The reconciliation…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

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

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

I have no need for that hypothesis.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Said about Napier's logarithms: . . . by shortening the labors doubled the life of the astronomer.

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Ce que nous connaissons est peu de chose; ce que nous ignorons est immense. What we know is not much. What we…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace