Gottfried Leibniz Quotes - Page 5

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• I hold that it is only when we can prove everything we assert that we understand perfectly the thing under consideration.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Consideration, Prove

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.1, Hackett Publishing

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• God's relation to spirits is not like that of a craftsman to his work, but also like that of a prince to his subjects.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Spirit, Craftsman, Relation

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.171, Hackett Publishing

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• I hold that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is in fact in nature.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Ideas, Words Of Wisdom, Causes

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• Let there be two possible things, A and B, one of which is such that it is necessary that it exists, and let us assume that there is more perfection in A than in B. Then, at least, we can explain why A should exist rather than B and can foresee which of them will exist; indeed, this can be demonstrated, that is, rendered certain from the nature of the thing.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Two, Perfection, Assuming

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• The monad, of which we shall speak here, is nothing but a simple substance which enters into compounds; simple, that is to say, without parts.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Simple, Words Of Wisdom, Substance

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• We should like Nature to go no further; we should like it to be finite, like our mind; but this is to ignore the greatness and majesty of the Author of things.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  God, Nature, Science

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• When a truth is necessary, the reason for it can be found by analysis, that is, by resolving it into simpler ideas and truths until the primary ones are reached. It is this way that in mathematics speculative theorems and practical canons are reduced by analysis to definitions, axioms and postulates.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Ideas, Words Of Wisdom, Analysis

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• For things remain possible, even if God does not choose them. Indeed, even if God does not will something to exist, it is possible for it to exist, since, by its nature, it could exist if God were to will it to exist.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Doe, Ifs

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.21, Hackett Publishing

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• For, above all, I hold a notion of possibility and necessity according to which there are some things that are possible, but yet not necessary, and which do not really exist. From this it follows that a reason that always forces a free mind to choose one thing over another (whether that reason derives from the perfection of a thing, as it does in God, or from our imperfection) does not eliminate our freedom.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Perfection, Mind, Doe

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.20, Hackett Publishing

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• Now where there are no parts, there neither extension, nor shape, nor divisibility is possible. And these monads are the true atoms of nature and, in a word, the elements of things.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Words Of Wisdom, Atoms, Elements

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• Indeed every monad must be different from every other. For there are never in nature two beings, which are precisely alike, and in which it is not possible to find some difference which is internal, or based on some intrinsic quality.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Two, Differences, Words Of Wisdom

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• These principles have given me a way of explaining naturally the union or rather the mutual agreement [conformité] of the soul and the organic body. The soul follows its own laws, and the body likewise follows its own laws; and they agree with each other in virtue of the pre-established harmony between all substances, since they are all representations of one and the same universe.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Science, Law, Agreement

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• ...a distinction must be made between true and false ideas, and that too much rein must not be given to a man's imagination under pretext of its being a clear and distinct intellection.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Men, Ideas, Imagination

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• I don't say that bodies like flint, which are commonly called inanimate, have perceptions and appetition; rather they have something of that sort in them, as worms are in cheese.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Perception, Body, Cheese

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.169, Hackett Publishing

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• [Alternate translation:] The Divine Spirit found a sublime outlet in that wonder of analysis, that portent of the ideal world, that amphibian between being and not-being, which we call the imaginary root of negative unity.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Science, Roots, Sublime

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• But in simple substances the influence of one monad over another is ideal only.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Philosophical, Simple, Substance

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.219, Hackett Publishing

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• I have seen something of the project of M. de St. Pierre, for maintaining a perpetual peace in Europe. I am reminded of a device in a cemetery, with the words: Pax perpetua ; for the dead do not fight any longer: but the living are of another humor; and the most powerful do not respect tribunals at all.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Powerful, Fighting, Europe

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Patrick Riley (1988). “Leibniz: Political Writings”, p.183, Cambridge University Press

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• It has long seemed ridiculous to me to suppose that the nature of things has been so poor and stingy that it provided souls only to such a trifling mass of bodies on our globe, like human bodies, when it could have given them to all, without interfering with its other ends.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Long, Soul, Body

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.168, Hackett Publishing

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• For since it is impossible for a created monad to have a physical influence on the inner nature of another, this is the only way in which one can be dependent on another.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Way, Impossible, Influence

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