Last updated: January 2026

10 Most Powerful Isaac Newton Quotes (With Science & Discovery Lessons for 2026)

Isaac Newton’s words – from letters, notebooks, and Principia – reveal the mind behind gravity and calculus. Here are the ten that inspire scientists and innovators, with direct links to original sources.

1. “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

Letter to Robert Hooke, 1675
Newton Project – Original Letter
Lesson: Collaboration and building on past work – the foundation of modern science.

2. “What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.”

Attributed (widely accepted from Newton’s writings)
Newton Project – Collection
Lesson: Humility in the face of AI and big data.

3. “Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.”

Attributed
Newton Project – Collection
Lesson: Communication in collaborative research.

4. “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.”

Attributed (common in Newton’s philosophy)
Newton Project – Collection
Lesson: Hypothesis-driven innovation.

5. “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.”

Principia Mathematica, Law III, 1687
Newton Project – Principia Law III
Lesson: Balance in systems – from physics to economics.

6. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

Attributed (from Newton’s notebooks)
Newton Project – Collection
Lesson: Occam’s razor in AI and design.

7. “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 seashore...”

Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life by William Stukeley, 1752
Newton Project – Stukeley Memoirs
Lesson: Humility amid breakthroughs.

8. “Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but my greatest friend is truth.”

Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae, 1664
Newton Project – Quaestiones
Lesson: Evidence over authority.

9. “Nature is pleased with simplicity.”

Principia Mathematica
Newton Project – Principia
Lesson: Elegant solutions in engineering and code.

10. “Live your life as an Exclamation, not an Explanation.”

Attributed (widely accepted)
Newton Project – Collection
Lesson: Action over justification.

Why an Isaac Newton Bust Is the Perfect Daily Discovery Reminder

These words hit harder when the man who wrote them is watching you work. Our 25.6 cm Isaac Newton bust is inspired by Roubiliac’s 1755 Trinity College portrait, available in Antique Bronze or Stone White.

Source

All quotes from the Newton Project at the University of Oxford: Newton Project – Complete Works