For the best and safest way of philosophizing seems to be, first to inquire diligently into the properties of things, and of establishing them by experiment, and then to proceed more slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them.
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"Gravity must be caused by some agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers."
"The description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded, belongs to mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn."
"It is possible that gravity may be essential to matter."
"Nothing can be divided into fewer parts than it hath."
"It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded."
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Rather than beginning with abstract theories, this quote argues for starting with careful observation and experiment to establish facts first, then cautiously building explanations from that evidence. It defends inductive reasoning — letting data drive theory rather than forcing observations to fit preconceived ideas. The emphasis on 'slowly' and 'diligently' reflects a warning against hasty speculation, privileging methodical evidence-gathering as the foundation of reliable knowledge.
Newton embodied this principle throughout his career. His optics work involved years of prism experiments before any theory emerged. His famous declaration 'Hypotheses non fingo' in the Principia echoed this stance — he refused to speculate on the cause of gravity, only its mathematical behavior. As someone deeply suspicious of unfounded speculation, Newton saw rigorous experiment as intellectual honesty and a form of reverence toward the rational order embedded in nature.
Newton lived amid the Scientific Revolution's conflict between scholastic tradition and emerging empirical methods. Descartes' hugely influential system built grand theories from pure reason, while Aristotelian deduction still dominated universities. Francis Bacon had called for inductive, experiment-first science, but speculative hypotheses remained common. The Royal Society, founded in 1660, championed experimental philosophy — Newton's statement directly endorses this program and implicitly rebukes those who theorized freely without first subjecting claims to rigorous observation and test.
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