"In every moment of her duration Nature is one connected whole; in every moment each individual part must be what it is, because all the others are what they are; and you could not remove a single grain of sand from its place, without thereby, although perhaps imperceptibly to you, altering something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole." (Johann G Fichte, "The Vocation of Man", 1800)
"That the observation of nature leads to thinking; that its abundance makes us resort to a variety of methods in order to manipulate it even to some degree on this there seems to be general agreement. But only a limited few are equally aware of the fact that the contemplation of nature suggests ideas to which we ascribe the same degree of certainty as to nature itself a greater degree, in fact; and that we have a right to be guided by these ideas both in our search for data and in our attempts to arrange what we have found." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1801)
"The Author of nature has not given laws to the universe, which, like the institutions of men, carry in themselves the elements of their own destruction. He has not permitted, in his works, any symptom of infancy or of old age, or any sign by which we may estimate either their future or their past duration. He may put an end, as he no doubt gave a beginning, to the present system, at some determinate period; but we may safely conclude, that this great catastrophe will not be brought about by any of the laws now existing, and that it is not indicated by anything which we perceive." (John Playfair, "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth", 1802)
"Nature does nothing in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes." (Sir Isaac Newton, "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", Voll. II, 1803)
"One does not get to understand works of nature and works of art when they are complete. One must try to see how they came into being, in order to comprehend them in a measure." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1803)
"We should scarcely be excused in concluding this essay without calling the reader's attention to the beneficent and wise laws established by the author of nature to provide for the various exigencies of the sublunary creation, and to make the several parts dependent upon each other, so as to form one well-regulated system or whole." (John Dalton, "Experiments and Observations to Determine whether the Quantity of Rain and Dew is Equal to the Quantity of Water carried off by the Rivers and Raised by Evaporation", Memoirs Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1803)
"[…] we must not measure the simplicity of the laws of nature by our facility of conception; but when those which appear to us the most simple, accord perfectly with observations of the phenomena, we are justified in supposing them rigorously exact." (Pierre-Simon Laplace, "The System of the World", 1809)
"Close observers of nature, however diverse their points of view, will agree that everything of a phenomenal nature must suggest either an original duality capable of being merged in unity, or an original unity capable of becoming a duality. Separating what is united and uniting what is separate is the life of nature. This is the eternal systole and diastole, the eternal synkrisis and diakrisis, the breathing in and out of the world in which we move and have our being." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "On Theory of Color", 1810)
"It is contrary to the usual order of things, that events so harmonious as those of the system of the world, should depend on such diversified agents as are supposed to exist in our artificial arrangements; and there is reason to anticipate a great reduction in the number of undecompounded bodies, and to expect that the analogies of nature will be found conformable to the refined operations of art. The more the phenomena of the universe are studied, the more distinct their connection appears, and the more simple their causes, the more magnificent their design, and the more wonderful the wisdom and power of their Author." (Sir Humphry Davy, "Elements of Chemical Philosophy", 1812)
"The phenomena of nature are most often enveloped by so many strange circumstances, and so great a number of disturbing causes mix their influence, that it is very difficult to recognize them. We may arrive at them only by multiplying the observations or the experiences, so that the strange effects finally destroy reciprocally each other." (Pierre-Simon Laplace, "A Philosophical Essays on Probabilities", 1814)
"We ought then to consider the present state of the universe as the effect of its previous state and as the cause of that which is to follow. An intelligence that, at a given instant, could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective situation of the beings that make it up, if moreover it were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, would encompass in the same formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the lightest atoms. For such an intelligence nothing would be uncertain, and the future, like the past, would be open to its eyes." (Pierre-Simon de Laplace, "Essai philosophique sur les probabilités", 1814)
"That which is formed is straightway transformed again, and if we would to some degree arrive at a living intuition of Nature, we must on our part remain forever mobile and plastic, accordin gto her own example." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Morphology", 1817)
"As we contemplate the edifice of the universe, in its vastest extension, in its minutest divisibility, we cannot resist the notion that an idea underlies the whole, according to which God and Nature creatively interact forever and ever. Intuition, contemplation, reflection give us an approach to these mysteries, We are emboldened to venture upon ideas; in a more modest mood we fashion concepts that might bear some analogy to those primal beginnings." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Doubts and Resignation", 1820)
"The difficulty of bringing idea and experience into relation with one another makes itself very painfully felt in all investigation of nature. The idea is independent of space and time. Research is limited in space and time. Hence in the idea simultaneous and successive features are most intimately linked, whereas these are always separated in experience; and to think of a process of nature as simultaneous and successive at once, in accordance with the idea, makes our heads spin. The understanding is unable to conceive of those sense data as jointly present which experience transmitted to it one at a time. Thus .the contradiction between ideation and perception remains forever unresolved. " (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Doubt and Resignation", 1820)
"Mathematical analysis is as extensive as nature itself; it defines all perceptible relations, measures times, spaces, forces, temperatures; this difficult science is formed slowly, but it preserves every principle which it has once acquired; it grows and strengthens itself incessantly in the midst of the many variations and errors of the human mind. It's chief attribute is clearness; it has no marks to express confused notations. It brings together phenomena the most diverse, and discovers the hidden analogies which unite them." (J B Joseph Fourier, "The Analytical Theory of Heat", 1822)
"'Natural system' - a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable goal. Scientific research is therefore endless, whether one proceed analytically into minutiae or follow the trail as a whole, in all its breadth and height." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1823)
"There can and will be new inventions, but there can be no inventing of anything new as regards the moral nature of man. Everything has already been thought and said; the most we can do is to give it new forms and new phrasing." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1823)
"When Nature begins to reveal her manifest mystery to a man, he feels an irresistible longing for her worthiest interpreter art." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1823)
"The vintner's occupation [...] Nature, from whatever angle you approach her, has a glorious way of becoming ever truer, ever more manifest, unfolding ever more, ever deeper, although she remains herself, always the same." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1828)
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