Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Quotes

quando orientur controversiae, non magis disputatione opus erit inter duos philosophos, quam inter duos computistas. Sufficiet enim calamos in manus sumere sedereque ad abacos, et sibi mutuo (accito si placet amico) dicere: calculemus

Now, since in the divine ideas there is an infinity of possible universes of which only one can exist, the choice made by God must have a sufficient reason which determines him to the one rather than to another. This reason can be found only in fitness, that is, in the degree of perfection contained in these worlds. For each possible has a right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection it involves. Thus nothing is entirely arbitrary.

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.

Fuit in Cartesio major librorum usus quam ipse videri volebat: hoc stylus et res ipsae
docent.

67. Chaque portion de la matière peut être conçue comme un jardin plein de plantes, et comme un étang plein de poissons. Mais chaque rameau de la plante, chaque membre de l'animal, chaque goutte de ses humeurs est encore un tel jardin ou un tel étang.

68. Et quoique la terre et l'air interceptés entre les plantes du jardin, ou l'eau interceptée entre les poissons de l'étang, ne soient point plante ni poisson, ils en contiennent pourtant encore, mais le plus souvent d'une subtilité à nous imperceptible.

Los misterios se pueden explicar hasta donde es necesario para creerlos, pero no se les puede comprender, ni hacer entender cómo se verifican, a la manera que en la misma física explicamos hasta cierto punto muchas cualidades sensibles, pero de una manera imperfecta, porque no las comprendemos.

[Was gibt es besseres für uns, als] wenn wir uns pflichtgemäß an den Urheber des Alls anschließen, an ihn, nicht nur als den Baumeister der Welt und Urgrund unseres Daseins, sondern als unsern Herrn und Endzweck, der das Ziel unseres Wollens bleiben soll und der einzige Urheber unsrer Glückseligkeit. [Absatz 90]

But in the treasures of divine wisdom, that is, in the hidden God and (which comes to the same) in the universal harmony of the world, a profundity (bathos) is latent, which contains the reasons why the actual series of the universe, comprehending the events we admire and the judgements we worship, has been chosen by God as the best and as preferable to all others.

Take the case (to use an easy example) of a river, carrying boats and communicating to them its own velocity, yet limited by their own inertia so that, all the rest being equal, the more heavily loaded will be carried more slowly. Hence it can be stated that the speed of the boats comes from the river, the slowness, from the load; the positive, from the force of the propelling agent, the privative, from the inertia of the propelled. Quite in the same manner it may be said that God contributes to the creatures their perfections, yet is limited by their receptivity. Thus all goods are due to the divine force; the evils, to the torpor of the creature.

Reality cannot be found except in One single source because of the interconnection of all things with one another.

This connection of all created things with every single one of them and their adaptation to every single one, as well as the connection and adaptation of every single thing to all others, has the result that every single substance stands in relations which express all the others. Whence every single substance is a perpetual living mirror of the universe.

If there is reality in essences or possibles, or indeed, in eternal truths, this reality must be grounded in something existent and actual, and consequently, it must be grounded in the existence of the necessary being...

"If my opinion that substance requires a true unity were founded only on a definition I had formulated in opposition to common usage, *then the dispute would be only one of words*. But besides the fact that most philosophers have taken the term in almost the same fashion, distinguishing between a unity in itself and an accidental unity, between substantial and accidental form, and between perfect and imperfect, natural and artificial mixtures, I take things to a much higher level, and setting aside the question of terminology, *I believe that where there are only beings by aggregation, there aren't any real beings*. For every being by aggregation presupposes beings endowed with real unity, because every being derives its reality only from the reality of those beings of which it is composed, so that it will not have any reality at all if each being of which it is composed is itself a being by aggregation, a being for which we must still seek further grounds for its reality, grounds which can never be found in this way, if we must always continue to seek for them. I agree, Sir, that there are only machines (that are often animated) in all of corporeal nature, but I do not agree that *there are only aggregates of substances, there must also be true substances from which all the aggregates result.

We must, then, necessarily come down to the atoms of Epicurus and Cordemoy (which are things you reject along with me), or else we must admit that we do not find any reality in bodies; or finally, we must recognize some substances that have a true unity. I have already said in another letter that the composite made up of the diamonds of the Grand Duke and of the Great Mogul can be called a pair of diamonds, but this is only a being of reason. And when they are brought closer to one another, it would be a being of the imagination or perception, that is to say, a phenomenon. For contact, common motion, and participation in a common plan have no effect on substantial unity. It i

To the possible objection that thus the world would of necessity have long ago turned into a paradise, it is easy to reply: Many substances already may have attained great perfection; yet, the continuum being infinitely divisible, there will always remain in the unfathomable depth of the universe some somnolent elements which are still to be awakened, developed, and improved - in a word, promoted to higher culture. This is why the end of progress can never be attained.

Lieben heißt, unser Glück in das Glück eines anderen zu legen.