In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.
Interpretation
Newton suggests that even the simplicity of the human thumb can be seen as evidence of a divine creator.
Isaac Newton emphasizes the complexity and precision found in nature, using the thumb as an example of human design, to argue that such intricacies imply the existence of a higher intelligence or God. He implies that the natural world and its wonders serve as a form of proof for the existence of the divine, even when other evidence is lacking.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the relationship between science and faith.
The best and safest way of philosophising seems to be, first to enquire diligently into the properties of things, and to establish those properties by experiences [experiments] and then to proceed slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them. For hypotheses should be employed only in explaining the properties of things, but not assumed in determining them; unless so far as they may furnish experiments.
Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
His epitaph: Who, by vigor of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated.
And from true lordship it follows that the true God is living, intelligent, and powerful; from the other perfections, that he is supreme, or supremely perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, he endures from eternity to eternity; and he is present from infinity to infinity; he rules all things, and he knows all things that happen or can happen.
My Design in this Book is not to explain the Properties of Light by Hypotheses, but to propose and prove them by Reason and Experiments: In order to which, I shall premise the following Definitions and Axioms.
It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.
I wanted to invent myself as a fictional character. And I did, and it has caused a great deal of confusion.
The ego is willing but the machine cannot go on. It's the last thing a man will admit, that his mind ages.
This world owes all its forward impulses to people ill at ease.
Democracy is timelessly human, and timelessness always implies a certain amount of potential youthfulness.
Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger. We were strangers once, too.
We do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but its fitting in is a test of its value - a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity.
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