29 Quotes by Pierre-Simon Laplace

Napoleon, when hearing about Laplace's latest book, said, 'M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its creator.'Laplace responds, 'Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là. (I had no need of that hypothesis.)

[Sire,] je n'ai pas eu besoin de cette hypothèse."En répondant Napoléon qui lui demanda pourquoi sa théorie de l'univers ne indique pas Dieux.

Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all.

[Science] dissipates errors born of ignorance about our true relations with nature, errors the more damaging in that the social order should rest only on those relations. TRUTH! JUSTICE! Those are the immutable laws. Let us banish the dangerous maxim that it is sometimes useful to depart from them and to deceive or enslave mankind to assure its happiness.

...by shortening the labours doubled the life of the astronomer.{On the benefit of John Napier's logarithms.}

L'homme ne poursuit que des chimères. (Man follows only phantoms.){His true last words, according to Augustus De Morgan.}

Probability theory is nothing but common sense reduced to calculation.

Nature laughs at the difficulties of integration.

Read Euler, read Euler. He is the master of us all.