Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
Interpretation
Truth is the most important friendship one can have.
In this quote, Isaac Newton emphasizes the significance of truth above all friendships, suggesting that while he values friendships with great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, the pursuit and understanding of truth holds the highest value in his life. This reflects a philosophical belief that relationships should be rooted in a commitment to truth and knowledge, indicating that truth, as a constant and unchanging entity, is the ultimate companion in the quest for understanding.
In practice
In a public lecture about the importance of knowledge, one might quote Newton to stress the priority of truth.
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.
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.
Poetry is a kind of ingenious nonsense.
Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.
Every one should consider himself as intrusted not only with his own conduct, but with that of others; and as accountable, not only for the duties which he neglects, or the crimes that he commits, but for that negligence and irregularity which he may encourage or inculcate. Every man, in whatever station, has, or endeavours to have his followers, admirers, and imitators, and has therefore the influence of his example to watch with care.
I read about writers who have routines. They write at certain times of the day. I can't do that. I am always writing-but in my head.
So I am not teaching you to be good, I am not teaching you to be bad; I am teaching you only to be whole. To be whole is to be healthy and to be healthy is to be holy.
By positional play a master tries to prove and exploit true values, whereas by combinations he seeks to refute false values ... A combination produces an unexpected re-assessment of values.
Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems _x000D_ with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who _x000D_ never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has _x000D_ a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the _x000D_ bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyone _x000D_ who's not going anywhere.
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