Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnizwas a German polymath and philosopher who occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy, having developed differential and integral calculus independently of Isaac Newton. Leibniz's notation has been widely used ever since it was published. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity found mathematical implementation. He became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators. While...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth1 July 1646
CityLeipzig, Germany
CountryGermany
Gottfried Leibniz quotes about
To love is to be delighted by the happiness of someone, or to experience pleasure upon the happiness of another. I define this as true love.
There is a certain destiny of everything, regulated by the foreknowledge and providence of God in His works.
Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.
There are also two kinds of truths, those of reasoning and those of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible: truths of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible. When a truth is necessary, reason can be found by analysis, resolving it into more simple ideas and truths, until we come to those which are primary.
Nihil est sine ratione. There is nothing without a reason.
Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another. I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general.
I do not conceive of any reality at all as without genuine unity.
God makes nothing without order, and everything that forms itself develops imperceptibly out of small parts.
Natural religion itself, seems to decay very much. Many will have human souls to be material: others make God himself a corporeal being.
The soul is the mirror of an indestructible universe. The Monadology.
We live in the best of all possible worlds
God's relation to spirits is not like that of a craftsman to his work, but also like that of a prince to his subjects.
It has long seemed ridiculous to me to suppose that the nature of things has been so poor and stingy that it provided souls only to such a trifling mass of bodies on our globe, like human bodies, when it could have given them to all, without interfering with its other ends.
Philosophy consists mostly of kicking up a lot of dust and then complaining that you can't see anything.