Every present state of a simple substance is the natural consequence of its preceding state, in such a way that its present is big with its future. Gottfried Leibniz More Quotes by Gottfried Leibniz More Quotes From Gottfried Leibniz Take what you need, do what you should, you will get what you want. Gottfried Leibniz should want needs Everything that is possible demands to exist. Gottfried Leibniz demand It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could be relegated to anyone else if machines were used. Gottfried Leibniz machines men science The greatness of a life can only be estimated by the multitude of its actions. We should not count the years, it is our actions which constitute our life. Gottfried Leibniz our-actions greatness years Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting. Gottfried Leibniz soul doe exercise Philosophy consists mostly of kicking up a lot of dust and then complaining that you can't see anything. Gottfried Leibniz dust complaining philosophy Every mind has a horizon in respect to its present intellectual capacity but not in respect to its future intellectual capacity. Gottfried Leibniz horizon intellectual mind It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted. Gottfried Leibniz mixtures evil believe Why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever? Gottfried Leibniz Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion more interesting than the inventions themselves. Gottfried Leibniz important math interesting The most perfect society is that whose purpose Gottfried Leibniz purpose perfect happiness 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. Gottfried Leibniz delighted pleasure love-is God, possessing supreme and infinite wisdom, acts in the most perfect manner, not only metaphysically, but also morally speaking, and ... with respect to ourselves, we can say that the more enlightened and informed we are about God's works, the more we will be disposed to find them excellent and in complete conformity with what we might have desired. Gottfried Leibniz conformity perfect might Nothing is necessitated whose opposite is possible. Gottfried Leibniz opposites There are also two kinds of truths, those of reasoning and those of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible, and those of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible. When a truth is necessary its reason can be found by analysis, resolving it into more simple ideas and truths until we reach those which are primitive. Gottfried Leibniz simple opposites science Imaginary numbers are a fine and wonderful refuge of the divine spirit almost an amphibian between being and non-being. Gottfried Leibniz amphibians unity numbers The present is big with the future, the future might be read in the past, the distant is expressed in the near. Gottfried Leibniz bigs might past In symbols one observes an advantage in discovery which is greatest when they express the exact nature of a thing briefly and, as it were, picture it; then indeed the labor of thought is wonderfully diminished. Gottfried Leibniz nature math science The present is saturated with the past and pregnant with the future. Gottfried Leibniz saturated society past If we were magically shrunk and put into someone's brain while she was thinking, we would see all the pumps, pistons, gears and levers working away and we would be able to describe the workings completely, in mechanical terms, thereby completely describing the thought processes of the brain. But that description would not contain any mention of thought! It would contain nothing but descriptions of pumps, pistons, levers! Gottfried Leibniz would-be brain thinking
