--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Every new body of discovery is…" description: "\"Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have.\" — Charles Darwin" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg" --- # Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form… ![“Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have.” quote by Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg) > “Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have.” [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Discoveries follow mathematical patterns because they provide the only reliable framework for understanding nature. **In simple terms:** Science relies on math to guide discovery. Key Takeaway Apply mathematical reasoning to new research. Themes science mathematics discovery methodology philosophy Mood analytical inquisitive Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - research planning - data analysis - model building - educational curricula Key Concepts pattern recognition theoretical framework empirical validation Questions to Reflect On - How does math shape scientific breakthroughs? - When might non‑mathematical approaches be valuable? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on math may ignore qualitative insights. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Body](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/body/) [Discovery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/discovery/) [Guidance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/guidance/) [Math](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/math/) [Mathematics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mathematics/) ## Related quotes > [We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has as yet been sung. The ancients had a juster…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/we-have-heard-much-about-the-poetry-of-mathematics-but-very-little-of-2/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“It is almost as if ideas set in mathematical form melt and become liquid and just as rivers can, from the most humble beginnings,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-arnell-williams/it-is-almost-as-if-ideas-set-in-mathematical-form-melt-and-become/) [G. Arnell Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-arnell-williams/) > [“A key ingredient in appreciating what mathematics is about is to realize that it is concerned with ideas, understanding, and communication more than it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-arnell-williams/a-key-ingredient-in-appreciating-what-mathematics-is-about-is-to/) [G. Arnell Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-arnell-williams/) > [A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/a-mathematician-is-a-blind-man-in-a-dark-room-looking-for-a-black-cat/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [Universities hire professors the way some men choose wives - they want the ones the others will admire.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/morris-kline/universities-hire-professors-the-way-some-men-choose-wives-they-want/) [Morris Kline](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/morris-kline/) > [It has been pointed out already that no knowledge of probabilities, less in degree than certainty, helps us to know what conclusions are true,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-maynard-keynes/it-has-been-pointed-out-already-that-no-knowledge-of-probabilities/) [John Maynard Keynes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-maynard-keynes/) > [Mathematical objects are determined by - and understood by - the network of relationships they enjoy with all the other objects of their species.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barry-mazur/mathematical-objects-are-determined-by-and-understood-by-the-network/) [Barry Mazur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barry-mazur/) > [...the science of calculation also is indispensable as far as the extraction of the square and cube roots: Algebra as far as the quadratic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/the-science-of-calculation-also-is-indispensable-as-far-as-the/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [To isolate mathematics from the practical demands of the sciences is to invite the sterility of a cow shut away from the bulls.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pafnuty-chebyshev/to-isolate-mathematics-from-the-practical-demands-of-the-sciences-is/) Pafnuty Chebyshev > [The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-north-whitehead/the-pursuit-of-mathematics-is-a-divine-madness-of-the-human-spirit/) [Alfred North Whitehead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-north-whitehead/) > [O Logic: born gatekeeper to the Temple of Science, victim of capricious destiny: doomed hitherto to be the drudge of pedants: come to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-bentham/o-logic-born-gatekeeper-to-the-temple-of-science-victim-of-capricious/) [Jeremy Bentham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-bentham/) > [. . . by natural selection our mind has adapted itself to the conditions of the external world. It has adopted the geometry most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henri-poincare/by-natural-selection-our-mind-has-adapted-itself-to-the-conditions-of/) [Henri Poincare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henri-poincare/) > [ ...There is no study in the world which brings into more harmonious action all the faculties of the mind than \[mathematics\], ... or, like… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-joseph-sylvester/there-is-no-study-in-the-world-which-brings-into-more-harmonious/) [James Joseph Sylvester](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-joseph-sylvester/) > [Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sandburg/arithmetic-is-numbers-you-squeeze-from-your-head-to-your-hand-to-your/) [Carl Sandburg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sandburg/) > [For a physicist mathematics is not just a tool by means of which phenomena can be calculated, it is the main source of concepts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/freeman-dyson/for-a-physicist-mathematics-is-not-just-a-tool-by-means-of-which/) [Freeman Dyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/freeman-dyson/) ## More by Charles Darwin > [The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/the-love-for-all-living-creatures-is-the-most-noble-attribute-of-man/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [The main conclusion here arrived at ... is that man is descended from some less highly organized form.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/the-main-conclusion-here-arrived-at-is-that-man-is-descended-from/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [So great is the economy of nature, that most flowers which are fertilised by crepuscular or nocturnal insects emit their odour chiefly or exclusively…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/so-great-is-the-economy-of-nature-that-most-flowers-which-are/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/i-see-no-good-reasons-why-the-views-given-in-this-volume-should-shock/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/i-am-quite-conscious-that-my-speculations-run-beyond-the-bounds-of/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [If worms have the power of acquiring some notion, however rude, of the shape of an object and over their burrows, as seems the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/if-worms-have-the-power-of-acquiring-some-notion-however-rude-of-the/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/we-can-allow-satellites-planets-suns-universe-nay-whole-systems-of/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [Formerly Milton's Paradise Lost had been my chief favourite, and in my excursions during the voyage of the Beagle, when I could take only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/formerly-milton-s-paradise-lost-had-been-my-chief-favourite-and-in-my/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [May we not suspect that the vague but very real fears of children, which are quite independent of experience, are the inherited effects of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/may-we-not-suspect-that-the-vague-but-very-real-fears-of-children/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/it-may-be-said-that-natural-selection-is-daily-and-hourly/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [“Darwin, landing in Brazil in 1832, had a similar reaction, colored by his reading of his predecessor." Humboldt's glorious descriptions are & will for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/darwin-landing-in-brazil-in-1832-had-a-similar-reaction-colored-by/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [...all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/all-nature-is-perverse-will-not-do-as-i-wish-it/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [“To admit that species generally become rare before they become extinct—to feel no surprise at the comparative rarity of one species with another, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/to-admit-that-species-generally-become-rare-before-they-become/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/to-suppose-that-the-eye-could-have-been-formed-by-natural-selection/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) > [It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank clothed with many plants of many kinds with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/it-is-interesting-to-contemplate-an-entangled-bank-clothed-with-many/) [Charles Darwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) [Explore all 497 Charles Darwin quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/) ## More Body quotes > [Most of us are convinced that we are our egos, which is who we think we are. The ego is part of our incarnation.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ram-dass/most-of-us-are-convinced-that-we-are-our-egos-which-is-who-we-think/) [Ram Dass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ram-dass/) > [The very purpose for being in this body, for every one of us, is to live and rejoice in that virgin area, that untouched,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sri-sri-ravi-shankar/the-very-purpose-for-being-in-this-body-for-every-one-of-us-is-to/) [Sri Sri Ravi Shankar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sri-sri-ravi-shankar/) > [Because of the womb being a central phenomenon in the feminine body, the whole psychology of woman differs: she is non-aggressive, non-inquiring, non-questioning, non-doubting,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/because-of-the-womb-being-a-central-phenomenon-in-the-feminine-body/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [When you're scared - and I mean really scared, not just hearing a noise in the night, or standing toe to toe with someone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-gordon-smith/when-you-re-scared-and-i-mean-really-scared-not-just-hearing-a-noise/) [Alexander Gordon Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-gordon-smith/) > [I've used the Phoenix Centrifuge to replicate what the body's going to go through on the flight up. I've also done some gravity tests…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-branson/i-ve-used-the-phoenix-centrifuge-to-replicate-what-the-body-s-going/) [Richard Branson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-branson/) > [Practically all animals which move fast in a homogeneous medium have found means of giving their body a streamlined shape, thereby reducing friction to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/konrad-lorenz/practically-all-animals-which-move-fast-in-a-homogeneous-medium-have/) [Konrad Lorenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/konrad-lorenz/) > [If the media is sending girls the message that their value lies in their bodies, this can only leave them feeling disempowered and distract…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-siebel-newsom/if-the-media-is-sending-girls-the-message-that-their-value-lies-in/) Jennifer Siebel Newsom > [Boys and boys' body image and clothes have become just as important an issue for boys as for girls.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-wiseman/boys-and-boys-body-image-and-clothes-have-become-just-as-important-an/) [Rosalind Wiseman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-wiseman/) > [By making conscious choices in our behavior and where we focus our attention, we can transform our experience of our body, decrease our biological…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/deepak-chopra/by-making-conscious-choices-in-our-behavior-and-where-we-focus-our/) [Deepak Chopra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/deepak-chopra/) > [Racism is a cancer. You cannot ignore it and it'll go away. If you ignore cancer, it simply metastasizes and consumes the whole body.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daryl-davis/racism-is-a-cancer-you-cannot-ignore-it-and-it-ll-go-away-if-you/) [Daryl Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daryl-davis/) > [America, you're sending girls a mixed message. On one hand, you're saying to have positive body image and love who we are; on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adora-svitak/america-you-re-sending-girls-a-mixed-message-on-one-hand-you-re/) [Adora Svitak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adora-svitak/) > [I read a couple of books about neuroscience and the relationship between the mind and the body.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joel-kinnaman/i-read-a-couple-of-books-about-neuroscience-and-the-relationship/) [Joel Kinnaman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joel-kinnaman/) > [If japa is maintained, no useless talk during work will be possible. The mind will always remain peaceful. Modern day diseases are mostly psychosomatic.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mata-amritanandamayi/if-japa-is-maintained-no-useless-talk-during-work-will-be-possible/) [Mata Amritanandamayi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mata-amritanandamayi/) > [It is the incongruous thing in my entire life, this isolation.. ... My work requires it - but I myself have no need or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marsden-hartley/it-is-the-incongruous-thing-in-my-entire-life-this-isolation-my-work/) [Marsden Hartley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marsden-hartley/) > [My friends, this body - perhaps more than any other gathering in human history - now faces that difficult task.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leonardo-dicaprio/my-friends-this-body-perhaps-more-than-any-other-gathering-in-human/) [Leonardo DiCaprio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leonardo-dicaprio/) [Browse all 20,814 Body quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/body/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Charles Darwin" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathematical-in-form-because-there-is/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Body" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathematical-in-form-because-there-is/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5e/charles-darwin-507_body_every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathemati_441850.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have.” — Charles Darwin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Charles Darwin", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-darwin/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Every new body of discovery is...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathematical-in-form-because-there-is/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-darwin/every-new-body-of-discovery-is-mathematical-in-form-because-there-is/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```