Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Quotes

Omne possibile exigit existere.

There are two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposites are possible.

The love of God consists in an ardent desire to procure the general welfare, and reason teaches me that there is nothing which contributes more to the general welfare of mankind than the perfection of reason.

imaginary numbers are a fine and wonderful resource of the divine intellect, almost an amphibian between being and non-being.

Even in the games of children there are things to interest the greatest mathematician.

Nihil est sine ratione.
[There is nothing without a reason.]

Wer seine Schüler das Abc gelehrt, hat eine größere Tat vollbracht als der Feldherr, der eine Schlacht geschlagen.

I am convinced that the unwritten knowledge scattered among men of different callings surpasses in quantity and in importance anything we find in books, and that the greater part of our wealth has yet to be recorded.

This miracle of analysis, this marvel of the world of ideas, an almost amphibian object between Being and Non-being that we call the .

De quelque manière que Dieu aurait créé le monde, il aurait toujours été régulier et dans un certain ordre général. Mais Dieu a choisi celui qui est le plus parfait, c’est-à-dire celui qui est en même temps le plus simple en hypothèses et le plus riche en phénomènes...

Alles studiren und lesen soll künfftig meistentheils in teutschen büchern geschehen,
auch was man schreibt, teutsch antworten. Im reden und schreiben muß man sich zu
kurzen wohl geschlossenen periodis gewöhnen, die flickwörter meiden, denen worthen
liecht und krafft geben. Allezeit also reden, wie es gleich zu papier gebracht werden
könte. Die gebreuchlichsten formeln und redensarten sich wohl einbilden, damit sie
ungezwungen und von selbsten fließen.

Nothing is necessitated whose opposite is possible.

Chaque substance est comme un monde à part, indépendant de toute autre chose, hors de Dieu...

And as every present state of a simple substance is naturally a consequence of its preceding state, so its present is pregnant with its future.

Moreover, it must be confessed that perception and that which depends upon it are inexplicable on mechanical grounds, that is to say, by means of figures and motions. And supposing there were a machine, so constructed as to think, feel, and have perception, it might be conceived as increased in size, while keeping the same proportions, so that one might go into it as into a mill. That being so, we should, on examining its interior, find only parts which work one upon another, and never anything by which to explain a perception. Thus it is in a simple substance, and not in a compound or in a machine, that perception must be sought for.