He occupies a grand place in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He invented infinitesimal calculus independently of Newton, and his notation has been in general use since then. He also invented the binary system, the foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures. In philosophy, he is mostly remembered for optimism, e.g., his conclusion that our universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one God could have made. He was, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, one of the three great 17th-century rationalists and his work anticipates modern logic and analysis, but his philosophy also looks back to the scholastic tradition, in which conclusions are produced by applying reason to first principles or a priori definitions rather than to empirical evidence.

1. Finally there are simple ideas of which no definition can be given; there are also axioms or postulates, or in a word primary principles, which cannot be proved and have no need of proof.

2. I also take it as granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one.

More Quotes

1. A man admires a woman not for what she says, but what she listens to.

2. Criticism is the art of appraising others at one’s own value.

She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure that her works were taken seriously. Female authors published freely under their own names, but Eliot wanted to ensure that she was not seen as merely a writer of romances. An additional factor may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes.

Zukav had dealt with anger problems for much of his life, and he was a sex addict. He began writing and teaching after discovering spirituality. His work includes instruction on creating “authentic power” and becoming emotionally aware.

Zukav is a recurring guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, having made regular appearances during the mid-to-late 1990s and returning in 2007. His most recent appearance discussed how to create a spiritual partnership.

1. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

2. Life in common among people who love each other is the ideal of happiness.

3. Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life.

4. No human creature can give orders to love.

5. No one makes a revolution by himself; and there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand.

6. Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?

7. One changes from day to day, and… after a few years have passed one has completely altered.

8. Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.

9. The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul.

10. Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age.

11. Work is not man’s punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.

12. One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.

13. You can bind my body, tie my hands, govern my actions: you are the strongest, and society adds to your power; but with my will, sir, you can do nothing.

1. Be quick to learn and wise to know.

2. Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.

3. Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that’s down can come up.

4. How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.

5. I would go out with women my age, but there are no women my age.

6. I’m very pleased to be here. Let’s face it, at my age I’m very pleased to be anywhere.

7. If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.

8. It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.

9. Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.

10. Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope.

11. Too bad all the people who know how to run this country are busy running taxicabs or cutting hair.