Isaac Newton Biography Quotes 13 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Isaac Newton was born in 1642 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. His father, also named Isaac, died before his birth, and he was raised largely by his mother, Hannah Ayscough, and later by relatives after her remarriage. As a schoolboy at the King's School in Grantham he showed unusual skill with mechanical devices and a habit of solitary study. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in the early 1660s, where the established curriculum still leaned on Aristotelian philosophy even as new ideas were spreading across Europe. At Cambridge, he encountered the works of René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, and particularly the experimental philosophy being promoted by figures like Robert Boyle. Isaac Barrow, the first Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, recognized Newton's talent, encouraged his mathematical studies, and later resigned the chair so that Newton could succeed him.

Cambridge and the Plague Years
When the Great Plague forced the university to close in 1665, Newton returned to Woolsthorpe for an extended period of private study. In these years he developed many of the central ideas that would define his career: the method of fluxions (his formulation of calculus), the binomial theorem in a generalized form, and the principle of universal gravitation. He experimented with prisms, separating white light into colors and concluding that color is an intrinsic property of light rather than a modification. The famous apple story, later recounted by William Stukeley, dates to reflections during this period, when he considered why the Moon did not fall to Earth. He returned to Cambridge to take his degrees and in 1669, at Barrow's urging, became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, one of the most prestigious academic posts in England.

Optics and the Reflecting Telescope
Newton's optical work put him in early conflict with some senior members of the Royal Society. He constructed a reflecting telescope to avoid chromatic aberration produced by refracting lenses and demonstrated it in London in 1672. The instrument made him a fellow of the Royal Society, but his theory of light and color met resistance. Robert Hooke and Christian Huygens favored wave interpretations, while Newton stressed that white light consists of a spectrum of rays with different refrangibilities. His careful experiments with prisms and apertures, and the concept of analysis and synthesis of light, convinced many, but the debates were heated. Henry Oldenburg, the Society's secretary, helped manage the exchanges, though Newton grew wary of public controversy. He eventually gathered his optical studies into Opticks, published in 1704, adding mathematical tracts on quadrature and the nature of curves.

The Principia and Universal Gravitation
The path to his greatest work began with a visit from Edmund Halley in 1684. Halley, along with Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, had been discussing the curve described by a planet under an inverse-square force. Newton told Halley he had already solved the problem, then set to work producing a systematic account. With Halley's encouragement and editorial support, and despite challenging exchanges with Hooke over priority, Newton produced Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687. The Principia presented the three laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, and a mathematical method for deducing celestial and terrestrial phenomena from these principles. He showed how the planets move in conic sections under inverse-square attraction, explained tides, and treated the precession of the equinoxes. Halley oversaw the printing and bore much of the cost. The book established a new standard for theoretical physics and mathematical explanation.

Calculus and the Priority Dispute
Newton's method of fluxions predated the independent development of calculus by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Although Newton had circulated manuscripts such as De Analysi in the 1660s and 1670s, he published little, while Leibniz printed papers in the 1680s that introduced different notation and methods. Disputes over priority erupted in the early 18th century, drawing in supporters on both sides. Nicolas Fatio de Duillier championed Newton at one point, while Continental mathematicians rallied to Leibniz. The Royal Society issued reports that favored Newton, and the controversy strained relations between English and Continental mathematicians for years. Despite the quarrel, both men made foundational contributions: Newton's fluxional approach and power series, and Leibniz's differential notation and rules, together shaped modern analysis.

Public Service at the Mint
In the 1690s Newton moved to London to serve as Warden of the Royal Mint, and later as Master of the Mint. He directed the Great Recoinage of 1696, applying meticulous organization to replace clipped and counterfeit currency. He oversaw assaying, improved mint procedures, and pursued counterfeiters with remarkable diligence, building legal cases that led to prosecutions. His work in monetary reform combined technical knowledge with administrative skill, and it gave him influence beyond academia. During these years he also maintained connections with the scientific world, corresponding with John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, though their relationship soured over access to star catalogues used in lunar theory.

Royal Society Leadership and Later Years
Newton became President of the Royal Society in 1703 and was reelected repeatedly, guiding its activities for decades. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. As president, he promoted experimental work and defended his own theories against critics, including continued disputes over optics and celestial mechanics. He engaged in philosophical correspondence, notably with John Locke, and he maintained cordial relations with Edmund Halley. He revised the Principia for later editions, refining proofs and adding material. In parallel, he pursued wide-ranging studies in theology and alchemy, subjects he tended to keep private, producing large manuscripts that reveal both his erudition and his conviction that nature and scripture shared deep harmonies.

Personality, Beliefs, and Legacy
Newton was intensely private, careful with publication, and long remembered slights. He experienced a period of severe strain in the early 1690s, stepping back from some correspondence. He remained rigorous and exacting in debate, which fueled quarrels with Hooke and, later, with Flamsteed and others. His religious views were unorthodox by the standards of the established church, and he read scripture in the original languages, devoting time to chronology and prophecy. He died in 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, a signal honor in Britain.

Newton's legacy spans mathematics, physics, and the institutional face of science. His mechanics provided a framework within which later figures such as Leonhard Euler, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, and Pierre-Simon Laplace extended celestial mechanics and the calculus of variations. In Britain, Roger Cotes and later Colin Maclaurin elaborated and defended his methods. His optics influenced experimental practice well into the 18th century. Beyond specific results, his combination of mathematical formalism with empirical testability set a model that shaped the Royal Society's culture and the broader scientific enterprise. Even as later revolutions in physics altered the foundations he laid, the Principia and Opticks remained touchstones for what it meant to explain nature with precision and depth.

Our collection contains 13 quotes who is written by Isaac, under the main topics: Wisdom - Truth - Peace - Science - Knowledge.

Other people realated to Isaac: Charles Babbage (Mathematician), E. T. Bell (Mathematician), Lord Kelvin (Scientist), Galileo Galilei (Scientist), Jonathan Edwards (Clergyman), Samuel Pepys (Writer), Christopher Wren (Architect), Johannes Kepler (Scientist), Roger Babson (Educator), William Whewell (Philosopher)

• 1728 The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (Book)
• 1707 Arithmetica Universalis (Book)
• 1704 Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light (Book)
• 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Book)

• Wikipedia