Sir Isaac Newton  

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was born in Woolsthorpe, England.  Newton may very well be the most influential scientist who ever lived.  His accomplishments in mathematics, optics, and physics laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the world.

Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he lived from 1661 to 1696. During this period he produced the bulk of his work on mathematics. In 1696 he was appointed Master of the Royal Mint, and moved to London, where he resided until his death.

As mathematician, Newton invented integral calculus, and jointly with Leibnitz, differential calculus. Newton made a huge impact on theoretical astronomy. He defined the laws of motion and universal gravitation which he used to predict precisely the motions of stars, and the planets around the sun. Using his discoveries in optics Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope.

Newton died in London on March 20, 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the first scientist to be accorded this honor.


"By always thinking unto them. I keep the subject constantly before me and wait till the first dawnings open little by little into the full light."

"If I have seen further than you, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants."

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

"This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being."

"If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent."

"A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding."

"We build too many walls and not enough bridges."