Portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Calculus, optimism

Early Modern influential 126 sayings

Sayings by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

To love is to be delighted by the happiness of another.

1670-1671 — From 'Elements of Natural Law'.
Love & Relationships Unverifiable

I do not conceive of any reality at all as without genuine unity.

1687 — From a letter to Antoine Arnauld, discussing his monadology.
Wisdom Unverifiable

He who hasn't tasted bitter things hasn't earned sweet things.

Unknown — A common saying he used in correspondence.
Wisdom Unverifiable

Make me the master of education, and I will undertake to change the world.

Unknown — Attributed statement reflecting his belief in education's power.
Educational Unverifiable

There is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance.

1714 — From 'Monadology', describing the pre-established harmony of his metaphysical system.
Life & Death Confirmed

I am not one of those people whose minds are so limited that they are unable to conceive of more than one kind of substance.

Unknown — From a letter, defending his pluralistic metaphysics against more reductive views.
Wisdom Unverifiable

It is a bad thing to be a heretic, but it is worse to be a schismatic.

1671 — From his 'Consilium Aegyptiacum', discussing religious and political unity.
Wisdom Unverifiable

The art of discovering the causes of phenomena, or true hypothesis, is like the art of deciphering, in which an ingenious conjecture often greatly shortens the road.

1704 — From 'New Essays on Human Understanding'.
Educational Unverifiable

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 actual in nature.

1684 — From 'Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas'.
Educational Unverifiable

I am so much for peace that I would rather be silent than say something which might disturb it.

Unknown — From a letter, reflecting his diplomatic and conciliatory nature in theological disputes.
Wisdom Unverifiable

Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom.

Unknown — From his ethical writings.
Wisdom Unverifiable

Time is the order of successive phenomena.

Unknown — From his metaphysical definitions.
Inspirational Unverifiable

The ultimate reason of things must lie in a necessary substance, in which the detail of changes exists only eminently, as in its source; and this is what we call God.

1714 — From 'Monadology'.
Biblical Unverifiable

I have said more than once, that I hold space to be something merely relative, as time is; that I hold it to be an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions.

1716 — From his third letter to Samuel Clarke, in the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence.
Inspirational Unverifiable

The knowledge which we have of God and of ourselves shows us that He is the greatest and the best of beings; and from this it follows that He must have chosen the best possible plan in producing the universe.

1710 — From 'Theodicy'.
Biblical Unverifiable

For since it is impossible for a creature to be perfect, the universe would be even less perfect if it contained only perfect creatures.

1710 — From 'Theodicy', arguing for the necessity of imperfection in the best possible world.
Inspirational Unverifiable

I also take it for granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one.

1714 — From 'Monadology'.
Art & Creativity Unverifiable

There is a certain destiny of everything, regulated by the foreknowledge and providence of God, who has established an infallible connection between the antecedent and the consequent.

1710 — From 'Theodicy'.
Educational Unverifiable

I maintain that the monads, which are the true atoms of nature, have no windows through which anything could enter or depart.

1714 — From 'Monadology', describing the windowless nature of monads.
Art & Creativity Unverifiable

When God calculates and exercises his thought, the world is made.

Unknown — Attributed saying reflecting his view of God as a divine mathematician.
Biblical Unverifiable
Your Cart

Your cart is empty