Isaac Newton

Why may not this power which causes heavy bodies to descend, and is the same without any sensible diminution at the remotest distance from the centre of the earth, or on the summits of the highest mountains, why, said Sir Isaac, may not this power extend as high as the moon? And in case its influence reaches so far, is it not very probable that this power retains it in its orbit, and determines its motion? But in case the moon obeys this principle (whatever it be) may we not conclude very naturally that the rest of the planets are equally subject to it? In case this power exists (which besides is proved) it must increase in an inverse ratio of the squares of the distances. --Voltaire On Attraction, Letters on the English (Lettres Philosophiques) by Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Harvard Classics (1909–14), Vol. 34, Part 2, Bartleby


For many years the invention of this famous calculation was denied to Sir Isaac Newton. In Germany Mr. Leibnitz was considered as the inventor of the differences or moments, called fluxions, and Mr. Bernoulli claimed the integral calculus. However, Sir Isaac is now thought to have first made the discovery, and the other two have the glory of having once made the world doubt whether it was to be ascribed to him or them. --Voltaire, On Infinites in Geometry, and Sir Isaac Newton’s Chronology, Letters on the English (Lettres Philosophiques), by Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Harvard Classics (1909–14), Vol. 34, Part 2, Bartleby

From what cause, therefore, do colours arise in Nature? It is nothing but the disposition of bodies to reflect the rays of a certain order and to absorb all the rest. --Voltaire, On Sir Isaac Newton’s 'Optics', Letters on the English (Lettres Philosophiques), by Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Harvard Classics (1909–14), Vol. 34, Part 2, Bartleby

Happy Newton Day! by Richard Dawkins, New Statesman, December 13, 2007
(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Isaac Newton's Gravity: How a major new exhibition gets the scientist wrong, by James Gleick, Slate, October 21, 2004

What Would Newton Do? by Phillip E. Johnson, First Things, November 1998