Isaac Newton — "As a blind man has no idea of colours, so have we no idea of the manner by which…"
As a blind man has no idea of colours, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Just as a person born blind cannot grasp color—real yet wholly inaccessible to them—humans cannot grasp how God perceives and understands all things. Newton argues for radical epistemic humility: God's mode of knowing isn't just greater than ours, it's categorically different. Human minds, no matter how sharp, lack the cognitive apparatus even to imagine divine omniscience. The analogy makes the point concrete rather than abstract.
Relevance to Isaac Newton
Newton wrote more on theology than physics, viewing his scientific discoveries as uncovering God's design. He held unorthodox Arian beliefs—rejecting the Trinity, believing in one supreme, omniscient God. Despite revolutionizing mechanics and optics, he insisted human reason has absolute limits before divine omniscience. This quote captures that conviction: the man who decoded planetary motion still considered God's manner of understanding wholly beyond human reach.
The era
Newton lived through the Scientific Revolution's peak—a period when natural philosophy was rapidly expanding human knowledge, raising fears it might displace God. Debates between empiricism and religious authority were acute. Deism was emerging, and thinkers like Locke were reframing human understanding. Newton positioned science as revealing God's handiwork, not replacing theology. This quote reflects that era's urgency to affirm divine transcendence even as human knowledge surged.
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