Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Calculus, optimism

Early Modern influential 126 sayings

Sayings by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

We live in the best of all possible worlds.

1710 — Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Theodicy), Part…
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

There are also two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; truths of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible.

1714 — Monadology, Section 33
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

Everything that is possible demands to exist.

1686 — Discourse on Metaphysics, Section 8
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

Monads have no windows through which anything could enter or depart.

1714 — Monadology, Section 7
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

Pre-established harmony is the only way to explain the agreement of substances without their interaction.

1714 — Monadology, Section 78
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The present is big with the future.

1714 — Monadology, Section 22
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

Each simple substance or Monad is a mirror of the universe according to its point of view.

1714 — Monadology, Section 62
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Nothing is without a reason.

1714 — Monadology, Section 32
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The actual world is the most perfect of all possible worlds.

1710 — Essais de Théodicée, Part 1, Section 8
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

It is not the eye that sees, but the mind.

1687 — Letter to Arnauld, April 30, 1687
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The soul is the mirror of an indestructible universe.

1714 — Monadology, Section 83
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

God is the ultimate reason of things.

1714 — Monadology, Section 38
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The universe, if it were not composed of monads, would be a mere aggregate, not a substance.

1714 — Monadology, Section 3
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The monad is nothing but a simple substance that enters into composites.

1714 — Monadology, Section 1
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

God has chosen the best of all possible worlds, not because it is the most perfect in every respect, but because it is the most perfect in the whole.

1710 — Essais de Théodicée, Part 1, Section 8
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

To be is to be a value.

1697 — Preface to Novissima Sinica
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Each soul is a little world, a microcosm.

1714 — Monadology, Section 63
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Nature makes no leaps.

1704 (published 1765) — Nouveaux Essais sur l'entendement humain, Book 4, Chapter 16, Section 12
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The monads have no parts.

1714 — Monadology, Section 2
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The soul is a living mirror of the universe.

1714 — Monadology, Section 56
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable