I can measure the motion of bodies but I cannot measure human folly.
Interpretation
Newton acknowledges the limits of scientific measurement in understanding human behavior.
In this quote, Isaac Newton reflects on the distinction between the measurable elements of the physical world and the complexities of human behavior. While he is confident in his ability to quantify the laws of motion, he acknowledges a fundamental limitation in trying to quantify the irrational and unpredictable aspects of human nature, suggesting that folly cannot be accurately measured or categorized like physical laws.
In practice
During a lecture on the limitations of science, one might quote Newton to illustrate the unpredictability of human decisions.
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.
The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.
One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.
I believe everyone should have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it. It is a basic human desire. And it also puts our worries in perspective.
Heaven but the vision of fulfilled desire, and Hell the shadow from a soul on fire.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
On tue un homme, on est un assassin. On tue des millions d'hommes, on est un conquérant. On les tue tous, on est un dieu._x000D_ _x000D_ Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.
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